Bhubaneswar: Land acquisition by the
Orissa government for Posco`s Rs 52,000 crore steel project in
Jagatsinghpur district could not be resumed for the second day on Saturday due to heavy rains even as social activists and leaders
rushed to the area to support the anti-displacement brigade.
"Like yesterday, heavy rains prevented acquisition of
land today also. Our teams were ready, but work could not be
started because of rains," Additional District Magistrate
Paradip Sarojkanta Choudhury said.
The acquisition, which was halted for five days since
Sunday because of the local `Raja` festival, could be taken up
on Monday if weather permits.
"Everything depends on the weather," Jagatsinghpur
district special land acquisition officer Surjit Das said.
The district administration had made elaborate
security arrangements with deployment of police force in the
proposed plant site near Paradip to prevent any untoward
incident in view of protest by anti-Posco activists.
The Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS),
spearheading the agitation against the mega steel project for
the last six years, had planned to oppose the acquisition by
forming human chains.
Politicians, social and civil right activists along
with educationists are now making a beeline to Dhinkia village
in the proposed plant site.
A group of activists led by Swami Agnivesh rushed to
the proposed project area. "It is illegal to hand over fertile
land to a multinational company. The government has no right
to destroy a well developed agrarian economy in the name of
establishing the country`s biggest FDI," Agnivesh said.
While a delegation of Congress is slated to visit
Dhinkia soon, leaders of CPI and CPI-M are and a BJP team are
scheduled to tour the area next week.
PTI
