Dhinkia residents favour new investments, including JSW steel project

Outsiders play villains to sabotage industrialization at Paradip

By Swagatika Bhutia/ Pravakar Sahoo

Paradip/Jagatsinghpur, Feb. 22: People living in Paradip and its surrounding villages, including Dhinkia, have always welcomed industries in their locality as industrialisation has brought them enormous growth and prosperity.

In a recent development, the villagers of Dhinkia who were previously portrayed by some vested interests as anti-industry have pledged their whole-hearted support to new investments, including it JSW’s integrated steel project, in their locality.

However, some outsiders are still playing villains to vitiate the entire atmosphere in the area for their own mischievous intentions.

“Dhinkia village which comes under Erasama tehsil fully supports new investments, including JSW’s integrated steel project, in the locality. There is no longer any animosity or hostility among the villagers for anyone else. They stand united in support of the project,” said Nirabhaya Samantaray, a resident of Dhinkia.

Recently, the Jagatsinghpur district collector and magistrate and the superintendent of police visited the village at the request of Dhinkia residents. During their interactions with the villagers, they top officers assured them all support under the Odisha Government’s resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) policy.   They urged the people to maintain peace and brotherhood and sought their cooperation for fruition of the new investments.

Recently, a five-member judicial committee paid their visit to Dhinkia to look into the allegations of local anti-industrial activists directed by the High Court of Orissa. Members of the High Court Committee held peace talks with the villagers and held hearings on both sides.

“Sadly enough, anti-industry leader Devendra Swain in association with some women attempted to create disturbance during the hearing. Despite strong resistance by the Dhinkia villagers, Manas Kar, another anti-industry leader, and his group tried to sabotage the HC committee’s discussion with the villagers. These vested-interests reportedly hassled and created violence. The local police had to intervene to control the situation,” said Nirbhaya.

Many people were injured in the clash and they were rushed to the nearby hospital.

In meantime, members of the High Court’s committee gathered information from the Dhinkia people regarding the situation. The High Court will hear the details of this committee on the February 23, 2022.

Now the Dhinkia villagers alleged that the outsiders have created chaos in the village and tried to sabotage the brotherhood and peace here in Dhinkia.

Villagers like Nirbhaya Samantray, Devdatta Swain, Akshay Behera, Akshay Das, Nityananda Swain, Vivekananda Swain, Nrusingha Raut, Prashant Lenka, Niwas Kandi, Kabindra Gochhayata, Dhaneshwar Das, Hrudananda Raut, Nirbhaya Das and Sishir Sethy claimed that some so-called social workers from outside the region are plotting such a heinous act at the behest of some of the state’s agitating leaders.

They also stated that the village favoured new investments, including the JSW steel project.