PARADIP: Residents of Mahal, Patana, Trilochanpur, Dhinkia and Govindpur villages vented out their anger against alleged police atrocity in front of a five-member Orissa High Court-appointed committee that went to assess the ground situation in Dhinkia on Saturday.
Wroth over police action during the demolition of betel vines for the plant, the villagers also alleged being implicated falsely for resisting the plant. Newly elected panchayat samiti member Mitanjali Bhoi shared that during the poll campaign, many voters said that they do not want to part with their betel vines but police are threatening arrest in case they resist.
Tuna Baral of Govindpur alleged that police not only forcibly acquired land for the steel plant but also lodged false cases to suppress their voices.
“I suffered injuries when the cops clashed with villagers on the JSW issue in January. I had to be admitted in the hospital. Police also lodged false cases against me,” said another Dhananjaya Behera from Trilochanpur.
On the other hand, pro-JSW supporter Nirvaya Samantray said villagers were living in fear because anti JSW activists are acting as Maoists in the locality. Opponents of JSW illegally erected barricades to restrict the entry of officials and halted development work. They attacked JSW and Posco supporters and torched houses. Normalcy was restored in Dhinkia only due to police intervention,” he said.
Meanwhile, many villagers claimed that they had to return without participating in the public hearing as all seats were taken by the plant supporters before their arrival. Restriction of entry of media persons to the meeting also did not go down well among local scribes.
Police dismissed charges of not allowing anti-JSW people and said they had to screen IDs before entry as only people of five villages were allowed to attend the meeting as per the direction of the Orissa High Court. Dhinkia sarpanch Kishore Parida and some other villagers gave favourable views for the proposed steel plant. Collector Parul Patwari presided over the meeting while SP Akhileswar Singh and other officials were also present.
The committee had visited Dhinkia on February 24 but was unable to hold the public hearing due to a clash between JSW supporters and those opposing the project.