The Jagatsinghpur district administration has conducted the meeting of the Rehabilitation and Peripheral Advisory Committee (RPDAC) for several major projects in the district.
The meeting, however, was marred by protest by some rebel Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supporters opposing the presence of agriculture minister, Damodar Rout, who has recently got himself entangled in a row over his remarks on ‘harijan’. The police had tightened the security at the venue of the meet to avert any untoward incident.
The meeting was presided over by Revenue Divisional Commissioner, central range, Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra who advised the project authorities of Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL), Essar Steel, Indian Fertilizers Farmers Cooperative Ltd, Deepak Fertilizers, having their units in and around Paradip, to expedite their peripheral development work.
Villagers and elected representatives expressed strong resentment on the activities of IOC and Essar Steel authorities alleging harassment of displaced families and land losers. They further pointed out that IOCL had engaged an agency to dredge the Jatadhari River mouth violating the norms and conditions of the Union ministry of water resources and provisions of Central Regulation Zone (CRZ) causing soil erosion and endangering many coastal villages. They pointed out that the dredging agency has created a lake of saline water near Jatadhari River mouth due to which the paddy crops in nearby villages are getting affected.
They also alleged that thousands of tube wells and wells have been rendered defunct due to seepage of saline water and urged the administration to conduct an inquiry into the matter and arrange supply of safe drinking water to the villagers.
RPDAC decided to conduct an inquiry into the allegations by National Institute of Oceanography and officials of the ministry of forest and environment.
It may be noted that IOCL is setting up its Rs 30,000 crore oil refinery project on 3243 acres of land affecting 21 villages in Paradip. Out of 143 displaced families, IOCL has provided 10 decimal land to each of 65 families at Dhinkia for residential purpose and also provided employment to 80 members of these displaced families through contractors.
