TNI Bureau: Tension erupted once again on Tuesday between the protesters and police in Odisha’s Gobindpur village over land acquisition for POSCO project. The standoff occurred after police tried to disperse local school children, who were staging a rally demanding the removal of cops from the area.
Some of the school children have been reportedly injured. The school children were protesting at the site where the leader of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti Abhay Sahu is on an indefinite hunger strike demanding withdrawal of police force from the village.
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The protest entered the third day today against the process of land acquisition for Posco. The land acquisition operation was launched by the Jagatsinghpur district administration two days ago. Around 15 platoons of police were deployed at the site.
On Monday, the protesters pelted stones at the police vehicles for which police blocked all the entry points to Gobindpur village.
The villagers were protesting after hundreds of cops entered Gobindapur village on Sunday morning and blocked the area from all sides. The government has acquired over 2,000 acres of land from the villagers for Posco project in Jagatsinghpur district. It is moving forward to acquire nearly 700 acres of land in the village destroying more than 500 betel vines and over one lakh trees in the area. Around 22 betel vines have been destroyed so far and the owners were paid Rs 45 lakh for the loss.