Land acquisition for Posco halted temporarily

--CPI’s national secretary D Raja visits Dhinkia village  

PARADIP: Following the stiff protest by the anti- Posco protesters of Dhinkia and Govindpur villages, the Jagatsinghpur district administration decided to stop the land acquisition for a day and withdraw the forces temporarily from Govindpur area after holding discussion with the left leaders on Wednesday. 

On the fourth day of the resumed land acquisition drive for the proposed Posco steel plant, the district administration dismantled 14 betel vines at Govindpur area and distributed cheques of Rs 26 lakh as compensation to the beneficiaries.    

However, the acquisition was not free from troubles. The agitators including school children and women of the village opposed the administration tooth and nail. In the afternoon, the acquisition process could not be carried out. The left leaders and the members of the Posco Pratirodh Sangrama Samiti (PPSS) strongly protested the land acquisition process which was stopped later. The district administration also withdrew police forces temporarily from Govindpur area.

According to sources, the land acquisition process would be halted for few days, but it would be resumed again. It is due to some administration constraints and non availability of adequate police force to control the protestors, said the sources.

“We informed the Government about the halting of land acquisition procession at the Posco site. Next course of action regarding the land acquisition will be taken as per the decision of the Government,” said Jagatsinghpur Collector Satya Kumar Mallick.

The opposition political leaders have criticised the role of police, district administration and IDCO officials alleging them hired goons of the private company. They demanded stringent action against the police and the IDCO officials who pushed and heckled the women and school children of the village during the protest in democratic way.

In the evening, CPI national secretary and MP D Raja visited the Dhinkia village and held discussions with members of the PPSS and its president Abhay Sahoo. According to the sources, Raja along with a delegation of MPs is planning to draw attention of the President of India about the land acquisition process of the State Government.