With the hardliner anti-Posco group, the Posco Pratirodh Sanghram Samiti (PPSS), agreeing to a land survey proposed by the state government last week, a Gandhian organisation, Naba Nirman Samiti, (NNS) is preparing to take over the reins of the anti-Posco movement.
? We are watching the situation. If required we will lead the agitation against the location of the 12 million tonne steel project in Jagatsinghpur district,” NNS chief Akhya Kumar told Fe.
The NNS was active in the anti-Posco movement in the initial two years. Akhya himself had sat in on a fast-unto-death dharna for 58 days demanding the shifting of the project. However, the NNS withdrew from the fray in 2007, when the movement became militant with the entry of CPI activists.
?If the PPSS had to agree to the socio-economic survey, why did it oppose it tooth and nail for the last five years?? asked Akhya Kumar. ?Abhaya Sahu has betrayed the villagers of Nuagoan, Dhinkia and Gadakujanga gram panchayats in Jagatsinghpur district,” he said.
Sahu should have taken the villagers into confidence before agreeing to the chief minister?s proposal of carrying out survey, he said, adding that the NNS would continue the struggle to scrap the Posco MoU.
Even though the PPSS has assured the government that it will extend support to the socio-economic survey work by the district administration, villagers in the proposed Posco site appear to be in no mood to accept the diktat of the outfit, which has been in the forefront of the resistance movement for the last five years.
The villagers are of the view that the socio-economic survey should have been allowed after the visit of the chief minister and the final outcome of the discussion. The pro-Abhaya Sahu group is working hard to convince the villagers that the socio-economic survey is required to establish the quantum of prosperity the area has.
The undisputed leader of the PPSS, Abhaya Sahu, also faces a revolt in the ranks with general secretary, Sishir Mohapatra, upset with the decision on the survey. Mohapatra is sarpanch of Dhinkia panchayat, the headquarters of the PPSS.
? Come what may, we will oppose the survey work,” said Mohapatra.
Following the decision at the meeting with the chief minister on Sunday, the Jagatsinghpur district administration is preparing to start the socio-economic survey in the villages of Dhinkia gram panchyat from Thursday.
Meanwhile, the United Action Committee (UAC), which is supporting the Posco project on conditions that its 29 point of charter of demands be fulfilled, has demanded that the chief minister should also talk to them. The UAC wants compensation for the land to be fixed at Rs 25 lakh per acre among other demands for rehabilitation and resettlement.