ROURKELA: Four and half years after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik laid foundation for the modern wholesale market yard complex at Balughat here, the key agriculture infrastructure project of `98.45 crore hangs in balance with the National Commission for Scheduled Tribe (NCST) stopping work.
In reply to a question posed by Rourkela BJP MLA Dilip Ray in the Assembly, Cooperation Minister SN Patra said construction of perimeter walls of the project was taken up for `73 lakh, but work had to be stopped following instruction from NCST.
Acting on a petition of a displaced person of Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) that the project is coming up on land of displaced persons, on February 23 NCST had issued a letter to Principal Secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management Department and Sundargarh Collector to
stop work.
The letter referred to discussion of NCST sitting on November 23, 2017 which reiterated to stop all State Government projects on RSP land till consent of tribal stakeholders and Commission is taken. The Commission had also threatened to approach civil court and instructed to book officials under ST/SC (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 if they fail to abide by its recommendations.
In August, BJP had protested against the BJD Government over delay in the project whose reasoning was as NCST comes under Union Tribal Affairs Minister and Sundargarh MP Jual Oram, it has has put a spanner.
The administration has earmarked 10.48 acres at Balughat along the National Highway-143 for the project of Regulated Market Committee (RMC) under the Cooperation Department with a spending pattern of 75 per cent, 20 pc and five pc by the Centre, State and RMC respectively. It envisages to deal with agriculture produces and have weigh bridge, warehouses, shop rooms for wholesalers, cold storage facility and digital information centre for farmers.
The RMC’s Sub-Committee Chairman for Works and former president of Rourkela Bar Association Ramesh Chandra Bal said lakhs of tribal farmers of Panposh and Bonai sub-divisions in Sundargarh district would be direct beneficiaries as they would be able to sell their produce at a single point and also get technical assistance. He said RMC is a statutory body and land was allotted legally by the Land Allotment Committee and added that it is unfortunate that NCST without going into details issued a blanket ban on all State Government projects. He urged the Commission to reconsider its decision.
Ray too has insisted to sort out the dispute through mutual discussion in the larger interests of the farmers and local economy.