By Our Correspondent
PARADIP/BHUBANESWAR: Devendra Swain Ex Samiti member Dhinkia Panchayat who is leading the anti-JSW agitation and another project opponent Muralidhar Swain and others a have been arrested and taken to Erasama police station.
The women of Dhinkia village had earlier thwarted the police’s attempt to arrest Debendra Swain, after hundreds of them had instantly rallied around to force the police to leave the village, earlier on a few occasions.
Meanwhile, three gates erected connecting Dhinkia villages and entry points have been demolished by police before venturing into the disputed village. On the other hand, villagers complained that when they were moving to their betel vines police intercepted them and attacked them brutally.
Earlier, tension erupted in Dhinkia village, the proposed JSW project site on Friday, the police resorted to a Lathi Charge to disperse the protesting villagers, as consequence hundreds of villagers including cops have injured in the scuffle, eight anti-JSW opponents have been arrested, police forces have overpowered Dhinkia village and erected temporary camps inside the village.
The incident happened in Mahala village near Dhinkia on Friday afternoon when villagers had converged opposing the betel vines demolition, police allegedly prevented the villagers for holding the stir when they turned violent, on turn police had resorted to a Lathi charge to disperse the protesting villagers.
JSW Utkal Steel Ltd (JUSL) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of JSW and proposes to build a Rs 65,000 crore 13.2 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) integrated steel plant, comprising a 900 MW captive power plant, and a 10 MTPA cement grinding and mixing unit.
The JSW steel project has not received environmental clearance thus far and has applied to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change for the fourth time on December 12, 2021.
The JSW project needs around 2950 acres of land for its project. IDCO had acquired 2,200 acres in the villages under Nuagaon, Gadakujanga and Dhinkia Gram Panchayats of the district of Posco, most of which would pass on to JSW.
The district administration wants 748 acres more for the new project, which comes under Dhinkia Gram Panchayat.The affected villages are Dhinkia, Gobindpur, Nuagaon, Polanga, Bayanala and Jatadhar.
