Bizodisha Bhubaneswar, July 20, 2015 : Villagers in Posco project area have started taking virtual possession of lands acquired for $12 million steel project in the aftermath of the announcement by the Sotuh Korean major to keep the project on hold.

The Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), which is spearheading the movement against land acquisition, on Monday made it clear that villagers have started re-occupying lands and will continue to do so as till the lands acquired from the villagers have been totally restored to their owners, and false cases levelled against agitators are withdrawn unconditionally.

PPSS president Abhay Sahu said, “The state government had acquired land from the people forcibly. But the villagers are determined to re-occupy the land which has been with them from generations.”

The Odisha government had acquired about 2,700 acres of land for the first phase of the project in Jagatsinghpur district. But the administration has not been able to get physical possession of the land due to stiff resitance by the local villagers.

“We appeal to the state government to resolve the issues affecting the fate of the Posco project at the earliest or else we would be forced to regain our land as it is our prime source of livelihood,” a pro-Posco leader said.

Villagers of Nuagaon, the epicenter of the resistance movement have started re-occupying their lands acquired by the government for the proposed Posco project.

Posco had claimed that it had spent Rs 350 crore during the last decade of its stay in Odisha, Sahu demanded the steel major to come out with the details of the expenditure of Rs 350 crore.

Sahu further claimed that some 300 false cases were registered against villagers for protesting the project and demanded their immediate withdrawal.

Though the district administration is aware of the re-occupation of lands by villagers, the authorities are quite tight lipped as it has yet to receive any directive from the administration to initiate action.

The South Korean company recently announced it was putting the project on hold after failing to make any visible progress 10 years after signing a memorandum of understanding with the Odisha government in 2005.