Anti-Posco activists to observe Black Day

PARADIP: After nearly 10 days there was some headway in the Posco project work on Tuesday. Jagatsinghpur district administration, with the help of Idco officials, expedited boundary demarcation work at Polang under Gadkujang panchayat amidst deployment of two platoons of armed police.The administration has also taken measures to identify labourers of betel vines and conduct a survey to enlist the beneficiaries who had lost vines during 2008 survey. In 2008, betel vines of nearly 200 villagers were demolished. They are deprived of compensation as no betel vine was spotted during the Global Positioning System survey in 2010. For identification of the betel vine labourers in Nuagaon and Gadkujang panchayats, a format has been supplied to each land loser who will provide the information regarding their labourers. After identification, these labourers will get their ID card to avail of unemployment allowance of` 2,250 a month besides other benefits.Meanwhile, the agitators at Gobindpur were joined by four MPs  -- Basudev Acharya of CPM, Gurudas Dasgupta and Bibhu Prasad Tarai of CPI and Narahari Mahato of Forward Bloc -- and leaders of five political parties. They met Posco Pratirodha Sangram Samiti (PPSS) office-bearers to discuss future course of action. The MPs  along with other Left leaders also sat on a dharna to express solidarity with agitating women and children.Dasgupta criticised Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik saying, “It’s not a political movement but people’s movement for livelihood.” He announced that June 22 (Wednesday), the day the Government signed the MoU with Posco in 2005, will be observed as ‘Black Day’ at Dhinkia. Civil society members like retired Justice of the Orissa High Court Pratap Mishra and retired Justice of the Mumbai HC Kolse Patil will join the ‘Black Day’ protest. Meanwhile, Ersama BDO Murlidhar Swain said  the list of 2008  beneficiaries would be completed within a week and identification of land losers in 15 days. Kujang Tehsildar Basudev Pradhan said demarcation, sand levelling and tree cutting work went on peacefully.