Ersama: Palpable tension mounted at JSW project site near Dhinkia village under Ersama block in Jagatsinghpur district after villagers including women were severely injured in police lathi charge while protesting against the proposed JSW project.
According to a source, hundreds of residents including men and women staged a protest Friday against proposed JSW project. Later, police resorted to baton (lathi) charge to disperse the residents. Many villagers, including women protestors, have been severely injured in the brawl with local police, a source said.
Palpable tension mounted at JSW project site near the village after local police forcibly evicted betel vine plantations. A number of villagers indulged in confrontation with the police to save their crops leading to the baton charge.
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Eviction drive was carried out sans consultation with betel farmers who would be supposedly affected due to the proposed project and also without fulfilling their demands, many locals alleged.
Demolition of the betel plantations was arbitrary and part of the local administration’s foul plan to speed up land acquisition, they added.
“The only source of our livelihood was destroyed. It has now become impossible for us to eke out our livings. We have been rendered entirely helpless,” a betel farmer of Dhinkia village said.
It is pertinent to mention here that tension earlier also prevailed in Dhinkia village following a violent scuffle between the residents and local police December 20, 2021.
Dhinkia villagers had then vehemently opposed local administration’s decision to demarcate its boundary. They irked over the arrests of two villagers who were leading people against the JSW project.
PNN