JHARSUGUDA: The repair work of the breached embankment of Vedanta Ash Pond 2 will take off soon as the district administration finally managed to convince the panicked villagers, who have raised demands of resettlement at a meeting here on Saturday. Earlier, the villagers had opposed the repair work to press the district administration to look into their demands of resettlement.
At a meeting chaired by Jharsuguda District Collector Bibhuti Bhusan Pattnaik, it was decided that the slurry in Ash Pond No. 3 would be pumped out to reduce the pressure on it to check the recurrence of such incident. It was also decided to conduct a meeting of the Rehabilitation and Peripheral Development Advisory Committees (RPDAC) and look into the demand of the villagers for relocation.
The villagers had raised the relocation demand, fearing fresh incidents of breach. Earlier, an ash pond breached on August 28, causing extensive damage to the paddy crop.Among others, the meeting was attended by Jharsuguda MLA Naba Kishore Das, IG (Northern Range) Sushsanta Kumar Nath, officials of the district administration and a delegation of the villagers.