The JSW project work resumed in a full-fledged manner few days after the baton charge incident on January 14. On Friday, over 30 betel vines were measured for demolition. The betel vine clearing started on December 22 and compensation by way of DBT started 5 days later. So far 320 vines have been demolished.

Not a single household is getting displaced from Dhinkia village where most of the protest is centred. The fact is the betel vines are on Government land, encroached by the villagers. Still, a fairly good compensation is being paid to the landlosers.

In all, 362 beneficiaries have been paid a total compensation amount of Rs 8.62 crore so far. The boundary wall construction from Mahala toward Dhinkia border also is on schedule with about 300 meter construction already through. Patna to Govindpur boundary wall construction has also commenced. Meanwhile, activists after being barred from entering Dhinkia, are resorting to demonstration at Bhubanswar and elsewhere without much fanfare.

JSW's proposed mega steel complex is expected to generate massive employment and create a growth ripple effect in the region. The project is garnering support from villagers steadily.

This is the same locality where Posco was opposed and now the protests are being conducted against industry in the same pattern involving children and women to oppose development and industrialisation in the area. A handful leaders and lobbyists who gained from earlier protests have abandoned the people of Dhinkia and new faces are being promoted. The major livelihood in Dhinkia is daily wage labour as per the demographic data and experts opine that industrialisation is the only way to ushering in fast economic growth in the locality.

So far as compensation is concerned, Rs 17,500 per decimal to owners of betel vines plus bonus of Rs 50,000 is fixed for first movers who offer vines for early demolition. A differential amount of Rs 6,000 per decimal for those who have received compensation at the rate 11,500 earlier from Posco has also been provisioned. For every ration card holder family who have not received betel vine compensation and who have not received labour compensation earlier, Rs 88,000 has been proposed. The company claims that compensation is way beyond the policy provisions outlined in the Odisha Government R & R policy and those offered by erstwhile companies such as Posco.