Posco appeals to villagers to release containers

PARADIP: Two days after Gadkujang villagers detained Posco’s pre-fabricated office structures, the South-Korean company’s officials on  Thursday appealed to them to facilitate movement of the containers. On Thursday, a team led by Deputy Managing Director of Posco India, vice- president and Director of Posco India visited Nuagaon  and Gadkujang and interacted with the affected  villagers. The officials also sought the villagers’ cooperation to expedite Posco work and appealed to them to allow these containers to move to the identified site at Nuagaon.The Posco sources said while two containers with the pre-fab office structures have reached Nuagaon, four more trucks are still with the villagers. The officials have reassured the people that it is committed for the well-being of the local community. The containers were detained by the Gadkujang villagers under the aegis of Kunja Bihari Gramya Surakhya Committee on Tuesday over their demands.  IDCO OFFICIALS VISIT:Simultaneously, Special Land Acquisition Officer Nrusingha Swain and IDCO Manager Sangram Mohapatra visited the trouble-torn Gobindpur village on Thursday and convinced the villagers to accept their compensation towards demolition of betel vines. They asked the villagers to claim the amount by submitting their identity proof on Friday.  The district administration had issued a notification to 31 growers of betel vines on October 12 to accept their compensation towards demolition of betel vines and also asked others to submit their applications to hand over betel vines to the Revenue Inspector (RI) of Nuagaon within 10 days of the issue of the notification. More than 150 growers submitted their applications offering to hand over their betel vines as a sign of support to the Posco project.MAHA SAMABESH : In a parallel development, the Posco Pratirodha Sangram Samiti (PPSS) will be conducting a Maha Samabesh at Bosecallis Point at Dhinkia on Friday protesting the project and its related coastal road work. They will be joined by their Left allies, sources said.  Team Anna member Prashant Bhusan, who was invited for the maha samabesh, has reportedly accepted the invite.