ROURKELA: Vehicular traffic on the busy Rourkela-Sambalpur Biju Expressway was disrupted for 12 hours on Monday as tribal protestors staged road blockade at Jhagarpur under Rajgangpur police limits in Sundargarh district accusing a cement company of acquiring land illegally.
Organised under the aegis of Forum for Gram Sabha Committee, Rajgangpur (FGSCR), the agitation forced hundreds of heavy transport vehicles to remain stranded on both sides of the state highway-10 (Biju Expressway) for long hours. Due to the blockade, four-wheelers and other smaller vehicles were diverted to Ghoghar road to reach Rourkela. Several vehicles had to take the Ranchi road of Kutra block to reach the city.
FGSCR president Bibol Toppo alleged that land acquisition was carried out illegally by the district administration in favour of Dalmia Cement Bharat Ltd (DCBL). For expansion of DCBL mines, 263 acre of land belonging to around 450 families in Rajgangpur and Kutra blocks were transferred to the company.
“On December 22 last year, we had placed some demands before the Sundargarh district administration. After failing to get a response, we staged the economic blockade for 12 hours,” he said.
Sources said on December 13 last year, the cement company had taken possession of 37 acre of land at Lanjiberna in presence of police for expansion of its dolomite and limestone mines and started removal of overburden with earthmovers. However, after intense protest by locals, the company stopped work. After police personnel were removed, the agitating villagers got access to the site and resorted to farming activities.
Toppo said their demands included levelling of the dug up plots on the 37 acre at Lanjiberna along with restoration of record of rights (RORs) of the land parcel and rest 243 acre in adjacent patches in the names of the affected tribal families.
In the evening, the agitators called off the protest. Toppo said if the administration fails to address their issues in next two days, the tribals would paralyse the Sundargarh collectorate for an indefinite period.