A public hearing for the proposed steel project of JSW Utkal Steel Limited on the land previously acquired for a POSCO project was held at Gadakujang in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur on Friday. However, about 80% of the residents of the Nuagaon, Gadakujang and Dhinkia gram panchayats did not participate in it.
Meanwhile, the Odisha unit of the Samajwadi Party staged a demonstration outside Raj Bhavan in Bhubaneswar and submitted a memorandum to the Governor opposing the public hearing at Gadakujang.
Local Congress leader Lalatendu Mohapatra said about 80% of the residents of the three gram panchayats of Nuagaon, Gadakujang and Dhinkia did not participate in the public hearing conducted by the district administration in the presence of company officials, claimed to Lalatendu Mohapatra, local Congress leader supporting the locals opposing the project.
Mr. Mohapatra told The Hindu that a majority of the people who attended the public hearing were brought from far off areas when the people of the three panchayats who would be actually affected by the venture stayed away from the meeting. How can the State government allow JSW to start its project without holding any discussion with the villagers, hundreds of whom have cases pending against them for their opposition to the POSCO project in the past, he questioned.
The Congress leader, who presided over a meeting of the agitating villagers on December 16, said that the administration and the company were trying their best to move ahead with the project without consulting the residents of the three gram panchayats who had fought against the POSCO project for several years in the past.
He further alleged that no cumulative impact study was conducted for the proposed steel pant of 13.2 MTPA crude steel, 10 MTPA cement grinding unit, and 900 megawatt captive power plant that were to be set up by JSW.
The party demanded that the project should be allowed to come up in the land that was earmarked for the POSCO project since it would affect the life and livelihoods of thousands of people.
