Amid protests and presence of heavy police force, the state Government on Thursday resumed socio-economic survey for the Rs 52,000-crore Posco steel project in four villages of Gadakujang gram panchayat in Jagatsinghpur district.

Tension prevailed in Gadakujang gram panchayat since early morning as anti-project activists offered resistance to the survey work and nearly six platoons of police force and officials of the district administration descended on the scene.

When the police reached Noliasahi village — one of the eight villages of Gadakujang, Nuagaon and Dhinkia gram panchayats which comes under the project area—members of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti put up a strong resistance. Survey work also commenced in Nuagaon while Dhinkia was not included because it is considered the bastion of the anti-Posco activists.

Posco, the South Korean steel behemoth, had started survey and land demarcation work on January 8 this year but was forced to stop it in the wake of resistance from local villagers under the Pratirodh Sangram Samiti. This had led to the district administration convening a meeting with villagers supporting the project.

On Friday, Posco announced a revised rehabilitation and resettlement package after a meeting between the company representatives, Government officials and the project-affected persons. The new package made specific offers like houses in the rehabilitation colony for even farmers displaced from government land.

The world’s third largest steelmaker had signed an MoU in June 2005 for the Rs 52,000 crore project which is the biggest foreign direct investment in India. The project is to be completed in two phases and each phase will consist of two modules of three million tonne per annum. The first module is expected to be completed by June 2010. Thereafter, three million tonne capacity will be added every two years and the plant will reach its full capacity of 12 million tonne by 2016.

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