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Orissa high court asks for status report on violence in Dhinkia steel plant site
A face-off between villagers and police n Dhinkia village, the proposed site of a 13.2 million tonne per annum integrated steel plant, left more than two dozen persons injured.
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BHUBANESWAR: The Orissa high court on Thursday asked the state’s home department to submit a status report on the ground situation in Dhinkia village, the proposed site of a 13.2 million tonne per annum integrated steel plant by Jindal Steel Works (JSW) in Jagatsinghpur district, where a face-off between villagers and police left more than two dozen persons injured six days ago.
Justice RK Patnaik sought the home department’s status report on the issue while hearing a PIL filed by Kuni Mallick and four others seeking a probe by a committee comprising a retired Judge of the high court, social activists and members of the civil society into the “police atrocities” committed on the residents of Dhinkia.
On Friday, police and villagers clashed at Dhinkia village when the former were marching to demolish the betel vines within the project area of the steel plant. Of the 2950 acres of land required for the project, 45.56 acres of forestland is in Dhinkia, where people are adamant not to allow the project to happen arguing that their livelihood depends on the betel vines.
After the clash, which also left some policemen injured, six persons including former member of panchayat samiti Debendra Swain, who has been campaigning against the proposed plant, were arrested.
Meanwhile, a delegation of over a dozen political parties submitted a memorandum to Odisha governor Ganeshi Lal, seeking his intervention to stop what they called “police atrocities” in Dhinkia.
The parties alleged that the Odisha government was using police force to evict villagers and they have left the village out of fear. They demanded that the police should be withdrawn from Dhinkia and demolition of betel vines be stopped forthwith.
In 2017, JSW Utkal Steel Limited, led by industrialist Sajjan Jindal, proposed to set up a 13.2 million tonnes per annum integrated steel plant at the same site that was initially allocated to Korean steel major Posco more than a decade ago. The Korean company, which signed a pact with the Odisha government, had to withdraw from it after protests by the people of Dhinkia.
The new steel plant by JSW in Jagatsighpur will connect with the company’s proposed 30 MTPA iron-ore grinding plant in Keonjhar district via a 312 km-long slurry pipeline. A 52 MTPA captive jetty located near the Jatadhar river mouth will also cater to the import and export requirements of the company.
