By Nageshwar Patnaik in Bhubaneswar, October 6, 2016 : Odisha government is all set to face another round of agitation by the land losers and villagers in Jagatsinghpur district with South Korean steel giant Posco virtually withdrawing from its proposed mega steel plant project at a whopping cost of Rs 52,000 crore.

Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), which spearheaded protest against land acquisition in the dsitrict, will shortly have its annual general meeting to decide the proposed course of action for restoring acquired land with the affected villagers.

The villagers, land losers and PPSS supporters see a bright chance to get back the land following return of land to farmers in Singur by West Bengal government under a Supreme Court ruling.

Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation [IDCO], the nodal government agency mandated to create basic infrastructure of industrial projects, had facilitated 1723.28 acres of government land in eight villages in the district for the steel plant proposed by POSCO.

Sources said, hundreds of villagers in Nuagaon village have begun cultivating in the land acquired for Posco by IDCO and the district administration has not intervened so far.

Recently, industries minister Debi Prasad Mishra informed the House, “As per government’s decision, the land acquired and handed over to POSCO would be kept in control of IDCO. Steps are being taken to construct boundary wall around the acquired land”.

PPSS, however, has made it clear that it would not allow any boundary to come up as some villagers had already filed individual cases in Orissa High Court seeking patta for the land which has not yet been settled as per the Forest Rights Act [FRA].

PPSS has been appealing the state government to return the government land to the affected land losers which had acquired forcibly two years back, and withdraw the false cases against the anti-Posco leaders and rejuvenate the forest cover and planting trees which had been axed during land acquisition in proposed project site in 2013.

“The state repression on the anti-Posco protesters is evident from the fact that there are some 420 criminal cases against the villagers. More than 2500 individuals were targeted by police and after facing trials, 800 people have been cleared of the false cases. We are now concentrating on legal cases. We will start agitation for return of land in the coming months and the state government should return the land without resorting to repressive measures,” PPSS spokesperson, Prasant Paikaray said.

With Posco no more in the scene, it will be really tough for the government to retain the land acquired as not many industries are keen to set up plants in the acquired land, informed sources said.