Two Posco officials detained by villagers

PARADIP: The villagers of Balisahi under Nuagaon panchayat on Wednesday held two Posco officials hostage for entering the area for a survey work.The two officials, identified as Prasant Kumar Rout and PK Das, were detained for four hours and their cellphones and camera snatched.The villagers were protesting the alleged inclusion of a fake prawn gheri of the United Action Committee (UAC) in the survey list.The villagers alleged that the tacit was to provide UAC with compensation money in order to win their support to go ahead with project work.“The UAC leaders and activists have no prawn gheri physically in the field” an angry villager said.Leader of Balishai forest committee Babuni Dalai alleged that as district officials included fake prawn gheri of Posco supporters the committee members in a protest dug it up.The two officials were released following an assurance by the Kujang Tahsildar, Basudev Pradhan. He had assured to conduct an inquiry into the allegation.Meanwhile, felling of trees and measurement of prawn ghery under Dadhibaman forest committee continued on the day.Special Land Acquisition officer Nrusingh Swain said 1400 trees have been axed.