BHUBANESWAR: A group of villagers in Orissa's Jagatsinghpur district were Friday detained and later released when they opposed land acquisition for the proposed $12 billion steel project by South Korean company Posco, police said.Trouble started when officials engaged in the land acquisition process tried to demolish the betel vines at Nolia Sahi village.Basudev Behera, a resident and an anti-Posco leader, refused to accept the compensation and attempted to prevent official from performing their "legitimate duty", Additional Superintendent of Police Santanu Das told IANS."He was joined by his family members and several others. Police whisked them away from the site and later allowed them to go. Nobody was arrested," he said.The local authorities say notices were served to several villagers to vacate the government land which they have encroached. Adequate compensation has also been offered to all such persons, the officer said.The POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), an organization which have been spearheading protest against the project however said they will not tolerate forceful acquisition of the land by the administration.The Posco project requires about 4,004 acres of land. Out of the land earmarked, 2,900 acres is forest land.The local administration had earlier claimed that it already has acquired nearly 1,000 acres for the project in July last year.The process was, however, halted after the union environment and forest ministry last year asked the state to stop all work, including land acquisition, related to the project due to violation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA).The state government resumed the land acquisition recently after the environment ministry gave a final clearance to the project.
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