PARADIP: The Jagatsinghpur administration on Sunday conducted a public meeting amidst protests from the villagers against the JSW steel plant project at Dhinkia. After chaos and disruptions, the meeting got underway where the administration sought cooperation of the villagers for the project.
It all started when the villagers protested the presence of JSW officials in the meeting by shouting 'Go back JSW'. They said that the public meeting notice did not mention presence of the steel project officials. The chaos paralysed the meeting for two hours. Later, officials convinced the villagers and the meeting continued but JSW officials were not allowed to present their views.
Earlier, the administration had conducted its meeting in Nuagaon and Gadakujang panchayats. On November 10, the villagers had refused to give consent to the JSW project without presence of affected villagers which prompted it to conduct meeting in each panchayat to seek cooperation of all villagers.
A memorandum, carrying signatures of 1500 villagers, was submitted to Collector Parul Patwari along with Chairman, Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC), Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF & CC), Secretary of MoEF & CC and Chairman of Odisha State Pollution Control Board.
The villagers demanded withdrawal of the project along with false cases against anti-POSCO activists besides implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006. "We are aware of the issues raised by the villagers and will take it up with the State government," said Patwari.
Water Resources Minister Raghunandan Das and SP Akhileshwar Singh were present at the meeting. Panchayat samiti member Debendra Swain said, the residents of Dhinkia strongly protested JSW steel project because it would bring no development to the locals after establishment of Paradip Refinery of IOCL and other plants in Paradip.