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| 'Land acquisition for Posco illegal' |
| BS Reporter / Bhubaneswar Jul 28, 2010, 00:47 IST |
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But the state government starts the process for the Rs 54,000-crore project.
The Orissa government today began land acquisition and resurvey for the proposed Rs 54,000-crore Posco steel project, even though a visiting central team termed the process “illegal”. The team said the Forest Rights Act had been violated.
“We have begun acquiring government land in possession of individuals at the Gadakujang panchayat area after proper verification. Two persons, Rohit Behera and Basant Behera of Bhuyanpal village, were among the first to receive cheques of Rs 1.15 lakh each for their land of over 10 decimal area used for cultivation of betel vines,” said Saroj K Choudhury, additional district magistrate of Paradip. The work was progressing smoothly without trouble, he clarified.
The central team of the Union ministries of forests and environment and tribal affairs dubbed the land acquisition process, without implementing the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, illegal.
“It will be illegal to acquire land until the Forest Rights Act is implemented properly,” Ashish Kothari, one of the four members of the joint committee, said.
“After realising that the state government violated norms under the Act, we will recommend to Union Ministry of Forests and Environment to withdraw or stay the forest clearance given to the Posco project.”
He said under Section 7 of the Act, the officials involved in land acquisition at this stage were liable to be punished. “We will favour withdrawal of forest clearance to Posco-India, as in case of Vedanta’s Lanjigarh project.”
The committee would give its report to the ministry within three days, he said. The team had visited three gram panchayats, Dhinkia, Gadakujang and Nuagaon, on July 24. Though there was no tribal inhabitant in the proposed plant site, Kothari said most villagers could be treated as “traditional forest dwellers”, as they depended on forest land for a living.
But defying this warning, the officials of Jagatsinghpur district administration and Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Orissa (Idco) today started the resurvey and land acquisition process at Bhuyanpal village of Gadakujang panchayat in the presence of police forces.
The officials, for the first time, are using a global positioning system (GPS) to measure the betel vines, instead of the traditional way of measuring these properties through tapes. Both pro- and anti-Posco activists are opposed to the resurvey and demolition of betel vines.
The United Action Committee (UAC), a pro-Posco outfit which had agreed for the resurvey following negotiations with the district administration, opposed the resurvey due to the ‘wrong method’ of measuring betel vines.
The surveyors are measuring betel vines from ‘fence-to-fence’ by using GPS, instead of ‘stay-to-stay’ through the traditional method. This would cause huge losses to the beneficiaries of betel vines, said Basudev Behera, the panchayat samiti member of Gadakujang panchayat. Sarpanch Nakula Sahoo agreed. According to them, UAC had agreed to cooperate on conditions like measurement of betel vines by tape, and not by machines, but they now feel betrayed.
UAC Secretary Nirvaya Samantray criticised the administration’s move to demolish the betel vines forcibly and said the committee was determined to intensify its stir against the GPS resurvey.
On the contrary, Posco Pratirodha Sangram Samiti (PPSS), the organisation spearheading the anti-Posco movement, protested the survey, alleging violation of Forest Rights Act as it was being done without the recommendations of the palli sabha and gram sabha.
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