The Orissa government on Wednesday resumed land acquisition for the proposed 12-million-tonne Posco steel plant project near Paradip in Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district. At least 11 persons, whose betel farms were acquired by the district administration, were handed over cheques worth `11 lakhs.
The land acquisition started early Wednesday morning amidst high security arrangement. Ten platoons of armed police forces were deployed in the area to avert any attempt by the Posco Pratirodh Sagram Samiti (PPSS) to thwart the land acquisition bid.
According to reports, the land acquisition work which was suspended on August 6, 2010, following a directive of the MoEF was resumed early in the morning in presence of four local tehesildars and additional district magistrate. Sarabeswar Behera of Nuagaon was the first person to receive a compensation amount of `1.42 lakhs for his nearly one acre betel farm. “The land acquisition work passed off peacefully today. Local people volunteered to part with their betel farms and received the compensation package,” said Jagatsinghpur district collector Nayaran Chandra Jena.
The PPSS, meanwhile, said the district administration “just cannot go for land acquisition by using brute force.”