Paradip: Public hearing was held at the Dhinkia panchayat office premises today in the presence of the five-member appointed by the Orissa High Court to assess the ground situation in the violence-hit village.
Villagers from five villages under Dhinkia panchayat participated in the public hearing.
Jagatsinghpur Collector Parul Patwari and SP Akhileswar Singh were present at the public hearing.
The High Court-appointed committee had visited Dhinkia on February 19 but was unable to hold the public hearing due to a clash between JSW supporters and those opposing the project.
The committee members on February 23 had submitted four reports separately of their last visit to Dhinkia.
A division bench of the High Court, comprising Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice R K Patnaik observed that the villagers could not interact with the committee members freely last time due to some incidents.
The HC had directed the committee members to visit Dhinkia again on March 5 and submit an anonymous report three days after its visit.
The bench had also directed the district collector and the district SP to ensure that no untoward incident takes place during the visit of the committee members and make video-recording of the entire proceeding.
Over a hundred villagers including women protesting against the proposed JSW project at Dhinkia village were injured on January 14 last in police lathicharge after a face-off between the villagers and police for about two hours.
The scuffle between the villagers and the police had taken place when the latter tried to stop them at the entry point to their village from taking out a rally against the JSW project.
