Rains halt POSCO project acquisition for the second day

"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 process of land acquisition was stalled due to protests by locals as well as 'Raja' festival for five days since Sunday and will commence again on Monday.

"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.
Meanwhile, POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), which spearheads the agitation against land acquisition has plans 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) and a BJP team are scheduled to tour the area next week.