Posco: District administration begins work

PARADIP: After receiving the State Government’s directive to denotify 438 acres of private land acquired for the Posco project in seven villages, the district administration has begun work to issue a notice to this effect.Additional District Magistrate of Paradip Surjeet Das said the administration would issue a notice on the de-notification order in newspapers to create awareness among the people.Out of the 438 acres of private land earmarked to be acquired in three panchayats of Nuagaon, Gadkujang and Dhinkia, the administration had paid a compensation of ` 1.43 crore to the land losers for acquisition of eight acres of private land at ` 17 lakh per acre.Special Land Acquisition Officer Nrusingh Charan Swain said the district administration would issue notification for the acquisition of these private lands under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894. There will be no notification for acquisition of private land in the troubled Dhinkia and Gobindpur villages due to stiff resistance, he said.CAG report and the High Court recently pointed out several irregularities in the land acquisition for the steel plant.