Patana: Residents affected by a proposed mega steel plant in Kendujhar district demanded compensation of Rs 20 crore per acre during the 10th gram sabha held Sunday at a school ground in Barudipashi village under Jamuna pashi panchayat in Patana tehsil.
The public hearing was conducted on the proposal to acquire 219.80 acres of privately owned land for the project.
Landowners attended the meeting and sought compensation of Rs 20 crore per acre, along with a comprehensive rehabilitation package.
The gram sabha, chaired by Jamunapashi Sarpanch Shashi Bhusan Naik, was attended by Additional District Magistrate and Special Land Acquisition Officer Rabindra Kumar Pradhan, Patana BDO Manas Ranjan Dandapat, Tehsildar Ashwini Nayak and IDCO’s Land Acquisition Officer Jay Kishore Patra, who heard the villagers’ objections and demands.
Five representatives of the affected families reiterated the demand for Rs 20 crore per acre and submitted a 44-point memorandum to the administration.
The charter of demands included peripheral development, improved drinking water facilities, education, health care, road connectivity, local infrastructure and employment opportunities.
Villagers warned they would not vacate their ancestral land unless all their demands were met.
Villager Srikanta Naik told officials the community would refuse to surrender its land without adequate compensation and rehabilitation.
Security was tightened for the meeting, with 29 platoons of police deployed at various entry points to maintain law and order.
Special Land Acquisition Officer Rabindra Kumar Pradhan said the administration would forward the villagers’ demands to the state government for consideration.
Outfi t opposes gram sabha The proposed gram sabha for the mega steel plant project faced opposition from the Jindal Posco Resistance Forum, with village committees from Jamunapashi, Godipokhari, Chemana, Chilida and Dhanurjaypur staging protests in their respective villages.
Members of the Barudipashi village committee under the banner of Jindal Posco Resistance Forum, comprising more than 90 per cent of the village residents, marched together toward the gram sabha venue.
However, they were stopped by police led by Turumunga police station IIC Dipti Ranjan Sahu.
The protesters later demonstrated in the middle of Barudipashi village, raising slogans against the proposed Jindal and Posco projects.
Anti-plant leader Lipibala Naik alleged that outsiders had been brought in to conduct the gram sabha.
She also accused police of snatching mobile phones from protesters and registering false cases against leaders of the resistance forum before arresting them.
Jindal Posco Resistance Forum President Ghanashyam Mahanta and Secretary Benudhar Sardar warned that the villagers would not part with their double-crop agricultural land for the company at any cost.