PARADIP : Pressing for fulfilment of their long-standing demands, residents of Handia village in Jagatsinghpur district, staged dharna and stopped the construction work of the boundary wall of Arcelor Mittal Nippon Steel (AMNS) India here on Friday.
According to sources in 2008, Essar Steel company had acquired 394 acre of land at Handia for expansion of its steel plant and accordingly served displacement notice to around 80 families of the village under section 4(1) of Land Acquisition Act.
During this time, it had also assured of providing training and employment to one member each from all the 80 displaced families. A joint meeting was also held in 2014 in this regard where the company had agreed on providing maintenance allowance to the unemployed youths, stipend to students and development of roads and health facilities among others. But the villagers alleged that nothing was done as promised.
However later in 2019, Essar sold its plant to AMNS without reportedly fulfilling its commitments to the displaced families triggering discontentment among the locals. The villagers complained that despite completing training 10 to 12 years ago, none of the persons has received employment in the company.
“Sadly, they have now crossed the age limit of securing jobs too.
Also, no land has yet been identified for rehabilitation of the displaced families. The company has now started the construction work without fulfilling any of our demands which is why we decided to protest,” they said. Village leader Anam Jena further informed they had staged dharna in April 2022 regarding the matter during which the company had again assured that the demands will be met. “That is why we stopped the construction work,” he pointed out.
Contacted, a senior official of AMNS informed that the villagers were asked to stop the protest and a proposal was given to them to discuss and resolve the issue. “The locals have agreed to our proposal. The company has meanwhile agreed on recruiting 54 individuals from the village in the first phase as per the R&R policy 2006,” he added.