Posco: Impasse continues

PARADIP: The way to Posco project remained blocked with irate villagers of Mathsahi and Balisahi of Nuagaon panchayat opposing work for the fourth day on Wednesday.Incidentally, these two villages are main entry points to Nuagaon and Dhinkia panchayats and the administration had planned to take up work in other hamlets after felling trees here.   While the recent face-off between villagers and police turned Posco supporters into antagonists, the administration seems keen to bring the villagers around through talks.  Meetings are being held with the activists of United Action Committee (UAC), elected representatives and chiefs of village forest committees to restore normalcy in the trouble-torn Nuagaon panchayat.  The villagers, on the other hand, are pressing for the fulfillment of their six demands, including an increase in the compensation  to land losers.   On Tuesday, UAC working president Dhirendra Pallei questioned police action against villagers supporting the project. He alleged that the administration welshed on its promise to conduct RPDAC meeting within seven days of Bahuda Yatra. It is 10 days now and the administration yet to convene a meeting to resolve their issues, he added. The administration had postponed the meeting with Revenue Divisional Commissioner (Central Range), as he was busy with the Rath Yatra preparations.    The chiefs of forest committees said that the villagers are adamant about opposing the project after the police attack which they described as inhuman.  Gadakujang Sarpanch Nakula Sahu said that it was risky to resume ancillary and construction work in Nuagaon and Gadakujang panchayats without the villagers’ consent.  The administration will hold talks with villagers under three forest committees on Thursday. Ersama BDO Murlidhar Swain said talks were being held with village forest committees in phases and the administration has proposed to meet the villagers in its bid to convince them.  It will take another five days before the work is resumed, he added.Tehsildar Basudev Pradhan was also present in the meeting.Meanwhile, hundreds of women under the banner of Bhita Mati Surkhya Manch staged a demonstration against the Posco project.