Cuttack: A five-member advocates’ committee set up to look into the police highhandedness on villagers opposing eviction of betel vineyards for industrial establishment in Jagatsinghpur district’s Dhinkia filed four separate reports in the Orissa High Court on Wednesday.
In order to get a clear picture of the ground situation in the affected village, the High Court today directed the Committee to visit Dhinka once again on March 5 to re-examine the facts and submit the report after three days of the visit.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Dr. S. Muralidhar and Justice R. K. Pattanaik ordered, “Counsels Prasanta Kumar Jena, Omkar Devdas and Sukanta Kumar Dalai as well as Debakanta Mohanty and J. Katikia, additional government advocates, to visit Dhinka once again on March 5 and hold public hearing to collect the views of the people.
The state apex court also directed Jagatsinghpur district Collector and SP to video record the reviews of both the sides-opposing and supporting the establishment of the industrial unit.
The Jagatsinghpur Collection, on the other hand, has been directed to submit an affidavit to the High Court after the committee’s visit to Dhinkia on May 5.
The next hearing in the case has been fixed on March 11.
JSW Group has proposed to set up a steel plant at an estimated investment of around Rs 55,000 crore on the land acquired previously for South Korean steel major POSCO’s steel mill.
The clash erupted when villagers opposed destruction of betel vineyards and the police chased them away using batons.
Activists alleged that the Jagatsinghpur district administration had resorted to gross human rights violations to facilitate the project.
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