JAGATSINGHPUR: Villagers of Trilochanpur in Dhinkia panchayat on Saturday decided not to participate in the ongoing protest against JSW Steel project after their longstanding demands were accepted by IOCL authorities with intervention of the administration.
The villagers had given their land to Paradip Refinery of IOCL in 1999 and been pressing for regular employment at the plant ever since.
But for over 22 years now, authorities had been ignoring their demands which had led the villagers to join the current anti-JSW agitations in Dhinkia.
In September, residents of Trilochanpur again submitted a list of 10 demands to the administration and IOCL seeking compensation to the farmers whose paddy crops were damaged by release of effluent. They had also insisted on construction of drains by IOCL, adoption of Trilochanpur, erection of sluice gate and four new bridges for effluent discharge besides development of the bypass road, jobs for unemployed youths and safe drinking water among other things.
Last week, the district administration interacted with the villagers to address their issues on the condition that they withdraw from JSW protests. A meeting in this regard was held at the Circuit House which was attended by nearly 20 villagers led by Dhinkia sarpanch Kishore Parida.
IOCL authorities represented by executive director of Paradip Refinery VS jain assured jobs to 752 land losers including 397 from Trilochanpur but denied two demands including adoption of the village and compensation for paddy crops.
Village chief of Trilochanpur Surendra Rout admitted that they had participated in the JSW movement as demands of villagers were being ignored.
”After 22 years, IOCL finally assured to address our issues and hence, we have decided not to join the steel plant protests,” he said.
Water Resource Minister Raghunandan Das, Paradip MLA Sambit Routray, Collector Parul Patwari, SP Akhilsewer Singh, Paradip ADM Kanhu Charan Dhir and chief manager (HR) IOCL SS Patra were present.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Ganeswer Behera, CPI leader Ram Krsushan Panda, CPM leader Suresh Panigrahi and others visited Dhinkia on the day to extend their solidarity to the villagers in opposing the JSW plant.