In a report forwarded by the Orissa government to Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh, Jagatsinghpur district collector Narayana Jena even questioned the integrity of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti leaders. "The Palli Sabha resolutions are not passed [according to due process] but must have been manufactured at a later stage with an ulterior motive...and to create confusion in the process of land acquisition ," the letter said.
In fact, Jena claimed that a team of officials at both panchayat and district levels , were trying to find records of the resolutions that the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti claims to have passed. "On a thorough search in district, block and panchayat office records, it is ascertained that these resolutions were never received..... nor copies of such resolution have been sent to district office or to any block office...", Jena asserted.
According to these resolutions, anyone whose ancestors have been living in the area since 1930, can claim rights under the Forest Rights Act, passed in 2007. Land can only be acquired with the permission and with compensation to such traditional forest dwellers. According to the PPSS, around 1,000 people have come forward with claims in one village and another 500 in the second. Read the full report here.
Source: Nageshwar Patnaik, ET Bureau, Economic Times, Bhubaneswar.
