Tamluk, Oct. 24: Government officials were driven away from an East Midnapore village where they went to conduct a pre-land acquisition survey today.

They had met the same fate in two other pockets of Geonkhali yesterday and decided to defer the study. But pressure from a section of the CPM apparently brought them back.

CPM sources in Haldia said a meeting decided last night that any delay in the land ac- quisition could “complicate matters” and allow the anti-acquisition brigade to troop down to Geonkhali from Nandigram, 40km away.

CPM member of Parliament and Haldia Development Authority chairman Lakshman Seth denied any spontaneous resistance from the villagers. “Those preventing the survey are outsiders. They are misleading villagers who are in favour of industry and willing to sell their land,” he said.

Trinamul Congress and Congress leaders in Geonkhali, about 140km from Calcutta, have together formed a Bhoomi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee.

Haldia Development Authority assistant executive officer Piyush Sardar, who had announced putting off the survey and promised fresh talks with villagers who wanted direct deals with investors for a better price, declined comment today.

Ship builder Bharti has sought around 400 acres on the bank of the Hooghly. The company has promised to invest Rs 2,000 crore over the next 10 years in the shipyard to be built with Apeejay Group.

Around 10am, about 200 people surrounded the officials as they walked into their village. The team returned to Haldia after being held hostage for about an hour.

“We want industry here, but we have to decide what will benefit us the most,” said Satyaranjan Maity of Deulpota, a sharecropper who owns 10 cottah of homestead land.

The Pratirodh Committee had its first meeting at Deulpota this evening.

“We will put up a stiff resistance wherever the Haldia Development Authority tries to acquire land. It has acquired nearly 14,000 acres over the years, but has left almost half of it unutilised,” said Partha Batabyal, the Congress secretary in Haldia subdivision.

“The authority has not fulfilled its promise of providing jobs and alternative livelihood to landlosers,” he added.

Trinamul MLA Subhendu Adhikary demanded a white paper on what the authority did with the acquired land.