PARADIP: FOR the villagers of Dhinkia, Gobindapur, Patana, Nuagaon, Gadkujang, Noliashai and Polang, Raja festival will never be the same again.
The three-day festival is incomplete without chewing ‘paan’ (betel leaf), but for the cultivators of betel vines, who had a bitter experience after their vineyards were demolished for Posco steel project, ‘paan’ has lost its flavour.
The betel vines, which they used to cultivate on thousands of acres of land for livelihood, were destroyed for setting up the South Korean steel plant. Even though the company is contemplating to move out of the State, the lands continue to remain unutilised in the three blocks and the cash-strapped labourers have taken up menial jobs for survival.
While several youths of Kujang have migrated to other areas in search of work after the demolition of betel vines, women have taken up domestic chores in different houses to add to the family income.
Parvati Behera said she commutes to Kujang and Paradip from her village on the outskirts of Kujang to work as a domestic help to maintain her family after losing her job as a labourer in betel vines.
“Posco company has stolen our ‘Raja’ cheer. Besides non-availability of our favourite ‘Raja Paan’, our socio-economic condition has been severely affected.”
Kulamani Behera, a 75-year-old resident of Noliasahi village, said, “I used to earn `200 to `300 per day working as a labourer in betel vines. Now, I am jobless and my family of five is struggling for a square meal in the absence of any other earning opportunity”.
Sources said while owners of betel vines, whose land was acquired for Posco steel project, have been compensated, thousands of labourers have gone unpaid in the absence of a genuine list.
The labourers should also be compensated for their maintenance, said pro-Posco leader Jeevanlal Behera of Gadkujang panchayat.
Rehabilitation and Peripheral Development Advisory Committee (RPDAC) had approved to pay compensation to betel vine workers at the rate of 20 per cent of compensation paid to vine owners. It was also decided to disburse unemployed allowance of `2,250 per month to each labourer up to one year or till he/she is engaged by the company.