ROURKELA: Renewing their protest against the allotment of land of a government dairy farm to a private industry, villagers on Thursday paralysed vehicular traffic on National Highway (NH)-143 for several hours by staging a road blockade at Kuanrmunda near Rourkela in Sundargarh district.
The agitating villagers under the banner of Kuanrmunda Nagarik Committee (KNC), blocked the NH for nearly 12 hours before normalcy was restored with the intervention of Birmitrapur police.
Sources said around 20.90 acres of the government-run Bovine Breeding Research and Bull Mother Farm along NH-143 in Kuanrmunda block was originally earmarked for setting up a medical college and hospital (MCH). However after the MCH proposal was dropped, the said land was allotted to Mahavir Ferro Alloys Pvt Ltd (MFAPL) by IDCO in 2009.
In the last 14 years, the MFAPL tried multiple times to take possession of the land but faced resistance from protests. The fresh agitation erupted after MFAPL initiated steps to take possession of the land for the construction of a boundary wall, staff quarters and other ancillary facilities.
Birmitrapur tehsildar Sushant Behera said MFAPL has obtained an order from the Orissa High Court to get police protection. Based on the court's direction, police protection was given to enable the company to erect boundary walls. When the administration failed to persuade the irate villagers to restore normalcy in the NH, police removed the protesters. Sources said the agitation was called off with the arrest of KNC members Rajesh Kerketta, Sanjit Pratap Singhdeo and Manoj Satpathy. The trio was still in police custody till reports last came in.
Kerketta, who is also a BJD leader, said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in 2004 had laid the foundation for a government MCH on the said land. But in 2009, the land was handed over to MFAPL. “Our demand for use of the land for setting up the proposed MCH or any other significant government project for larger benefit of the tribal population will continue. Protests would be intensified if the government fails to cancel the land allotment,” he warned.
Reiterating the demand for cancellation of the land allotment, Birmitrapur MLA Shankar Oram alleged that the land was given to MFAPL for a paltry Rs 46.41 lakh against its present valuation of over Rs 84 crore. The mandatory gram sabha approval was also not taken.