BALASORE: Members of Vitamati Surakshya Committee (VSC) along with villagers of Dagara, Chowmukh, Nuagaon, Bedgadia, Kaladiha and Jambhirai organised a ‘Praja Meli’ to halt the Subarnarekha port project at Chowmukh in Baliapal block on Friday. As a sign of their resistance, they also detained eight project officials who were on their way to the site. Police reached the spot on getting the information and rescued the officials after pacifying the agitators.
The villagers claimed that the project will benefit the government but adversely impact villagers of six panchayats in the block. According to them, land within a radius of 20 km of the project will be affected once it materialises and this will impact people who solely depend on farming for livelihood. Daily income of around 40,000 people will suffer a setback as the valuable property will be lost to the project. Besides, there is no clarity on the employment generation aspect of the proposed port, they said.
VSC coordinator Arun Jena, who led the mass meeting, said the government is violating the order of the Supreme Court by developing project on agriculture and forest land. “We will not allow any project work to take place until our grievances are addressed,” he said. Contacted, Baliapal IIC Parshuram Sahoo said the detained officials were rescued by police at around 11 am after the protestors were assured of needful action. No case had been registered.