RAIPUR: The Paradip-Hyderabad Product Pipeline (PHPl) project of indian Oil corporation limited (iOcl) is facing stiff resistance by residents of Dhinkia gram panchayat of erasama block. Though iOcl had started work on laying of pipes for the project, the villagers said the company had not sought their permission before moving ahead. They have been demanding fulfilment of their six-point charter of demands including jobs, drinking water, road, street light, healthcare services, land for the landless and withdrawal of cases a g a i n s t a n t i - P o s c o protestors.
The villagers also alleged that the land taken over by the company was gochar (grazing) land, which has not yet been de-reserved and no consent has been given through gram Sabha. erasama tehsildar chittaranjan Mohanty said iOcl has not yet been given right of way (ROW) by the State government for laying the pipeline for the project at Dhinkia.
The district administration had requested the principal secretary of Revenue and Disaster Management department to grant ROW for laying of the pipeline in June 2018 but it has not been done yet. “Due to local opposition, the administration decided to stop the work for the time being.
The project will be restarted once iOcl is given the necessary permission by the authorities,” he said. as per the Odisha government land Settlement act 1962, there is provision of dereservation of gochar land. it states that the government may authorize any officer not below the rank of collector to de-reserve any land which has been reserved and recorded as gochar. gram Sabhas constituted under Odisha gram Panchyat act 1964 can give consent to use gochar land for reasonable purposes but no such step was taken in this case. iOcl has already paid `2.41 lakh as per highest benchmark valuation for the year 2018 towards license fee as per clause of no 5(8) of Revenue and Disaster Management department.