Jindal's power project faces another roadblock

Jindal India Limited's 1200 MW thermal power plant proposed to come up at Kaniha near here at an investment of Rs 6,000 crore has faced yet another roadblock.

A faction of the land losers have refused to accept the decision taken by the local administration and the company officials in a meeting held recently.

The meeting, presided over by Nirmal Mishra, the local sub-collector, had decided that depending on the percentage of their land lost, the land losers will get an additional cash compensation ranging from Rs one lakh to Rs three lakh.

This additional compensation is beyond what is mentioned in the state's Rehabilitation & Resettlement (R&R) Policy.

The land losers opposing the decision have announced they would not allow the company to start construction work without fulfillment of their four-point charter of demands.

One of their major demands is payment of Rs 15 lakh as cash package by Jindal India Power to those land oustees who fail to get a job in the company. Company sources said the construction work on their power plant was running six months behind schedule even though they had paid almost the entire compensation amount to the land losers in all the three affected villages.

“We have paid Rs 7.45 lakh per acre of land to the land losers, the highest paid by any company in the state. Land acquisition for our power plant is over”, said a company source.

It may be noted that a solution is yet to be worked out despite 11 meetings held so far involving the local villagers, company officials and the district administration.

Earlier, the Rehabilitation and Peripheral Development Advisory Committee (RPDAC) Committee in its meeting failed to take any decision on the issue of payment of cash package to the land losers.

Later, a sub-committee, headed by the district collector and with the local MP and MLAs as its members, was formed to take a final call on on the issues of displacement and compensation.

The sub-committee is yet to meet even though it was formed a month back. The sub-committee is likely to hold a meeting this month and its decision on the issues of displacement and compensation of the power project is awaited, said a top company official.