Utkal Alumina refinery work halts amid protest

The civil construction of the Rs 5000-crore alumina refinery project of Utkal Alumina International Limited, a Aditya Birla group company, near Kasipur in Orissa’s Rayagada district has once again come to a halt with the affected people locking up of the main gate of the project renewing their demands. Hundreds of people from at least eight panchayats of three blocks, affected by the project, staged in front of the gate and did not allow the company officials into the project site. As the state government and the project authorities are not able to fulfill their demands, the protesters wanted to directly interact with the head of the company, Kumar Mangalam Birla.

“We had allowed the company to carry on with the construction on the assurance of the government and the project authorities to fulfill our demands”, said Bhagaban Majhi, the convener of the Prakutika Sampad Surakhya Parisad, an organisation spearheading the agitation. “We will not allow the company officials this time until Kumar Mangalam Biral comes here to directly discuss with us about our demands”, he said.

The project affected people (PAP) have demanded Rs 10 lakh compensation per acre of the land acquired for the project and at least one job to each of the affected families among other things. The company sources, however, said the PAPs were given an ex-gratia in early 2005 over and above the compensation paid in 1996 according to the state guidelines. While they were paid Rs 30,000 per acre in 1995-96, an additional, Rs 80,000 was paid in 2005-06. “This time the government has directed us to pay Rs one lakh per acre as compensation and we are ready to pay Rs 50,000 per acre” the company official said.

The company has already spent about Rs 750 crore in the project and targets to start production from January 2012 next. “We are trying to convince the PAPs and expedite civil construction work to meet the deadline”, he pointed out.

Utkal Alumina refinery, which was conceived in 1992 to tap the huge deposit of bauxite in the area and produce alumina, is facing opposition from the environmentalists and affected local villagers for the last 17 years. The project work was affected for about two months in 2005, 55 days in 2006 and 127 days in 2007 before being halted for about two months last year.

When the construction work was expedited this year, it faced renewed stir from the PAPs in February, this year.