JOIN US“Officials are working on it and we are hopeful of completing the entire MoU renewal process by month end,” state industries minister Raghunath Mohanty told reporters here.
The MoU which was inked exactly six years back on June 22, 2005 had already expired last year. The state government has been receiving heavy criticism from different quarters for going ahead with the land acquisition works for the 12 million tonne project without renewing the MoU.
The minister also informed that though the land acquisition work for the Rupees 52,000 core project had been stopped in Dhinkia panchayat of Jagatsinghpur district following the agitation launched by the locals, the construction of boundary wall for the project had already begun in the land that had been acquired by the district administration in two other panchayats – Nuagaon and Gara Kujang. Sources in Jagatsinghpur district administration said, the construction works for the rehabilitation colony had also started.
Meanwhile, the local villagers in Dhinkia who had been protesting against the land acquisition works since beginning of this month by putting a human barricade in the area observed a “Black Day” on Wednesday to mark the sixth anniversary of signing of MoU between the Orissa government and Posco.
While observing the black day, the villagers vowed to continue their struggle till the Posco project is shifted from here. “They are determined to throw the project out of their area”, said Abhay Sahu, the president of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, the organisation which had been spearheading the local people’s agitation against the South Korean mega project.
Anti-Posco groups and activists are also planning a series of fresh agitational programmes in the coming days which include observation of a “black day” across the country on June 24 besides a three day satyagraha in front of chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s residence here in the first week of July.