Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will visit the three gram panchayats in Jagatsinghpur district, where thousands of villagers oppose displacement and demand the shifting of the site of a proposed Posco steel plant.
Mr. Patnaik agreed to the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti's demand that he visit the site when four of its representatives met him here on Sunday.
Though the Samiti has been pressing the demand for the past five years, this was the first time its representatives met Mr. Patnaik. Also, for the first time since became Chief Minister in March 2000, he will visit the villages to hear the people opposed to land acquisition for any industrial project.
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Talking to journalists after the meeting, Samiti chairman Abhay Sahoo expressed satisfaction with Mr. Patnaik's promise to visit the area.
Asserting that the demand for shifting Posco India Private Limited's project from the site at Dhinkia, Nuagaon and Gadakujang was “non-negotiable,” Mr. Sahoo hoped that Mr. Patnaik would concede the plea after he saw for himself what damage the steel plant would inflict on the villages where people were dependent on agriculture, prawn-farming and betel vine cultivation.
The Samiti, however, agreed to the Chief Minister's proposal that a preliminary survey for the project continue without police deployment.
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The Chief Minister said he would hold talks with other sections of the three gram panchayats and visit the area at an appropriate time after the completion of the survey work.
The Samiti demand for shifting the project was also discussed, he said.
Among those who attended the meeting were Prasanta Muduli, Biju Janata Dal MLA from Balikuda-Erasama; and Bibhu Prasad Tarai, Communist Party of India MP from Jagatsinghpur, besides the Samiti representatives.
The meeting was organised after leaders of the CPI, the CPI(M), the Forward Bloc, the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha met Mr. Patnaik two days ago and requested him to hold talks with the Samiti.