Villagers oppose construction work at Rungta mines

The efforts of Rungta Mines to restart construction work for its two million tonne per annum steel plant after a gap of almost five years in Orissa’s Dhenkanal district has faced resistance from the affected villagers of Hindol area in the district.

The affected people opposed the construction work of Rungta Mines due to the absence of a rehabilitation package and peripheral development work by the company. They opposed the company’s efforts to build a compound wall around 560 acres of land it had acquired.

The affected people have sent a memorandum to the Dhenkanal district collector, containing their 11-point charter of demands.

In the memorandum, the people condemned the company’s effort to construct the compound wall without taking the affected people into confidence. The affected people have warned of intensifying their stir in future if Rungta Mines goes ahead with the construction of the wall without announcing any rehabilitation package.

The villagers demanded the convening of an immediate session of the Rehabilitation and Peripheral Development Advisory Committee (RPDAC) to decide on issue like upward revision of land value, conservation of all natural water resources in the region as well as comprehensive rehabilitation and peripheral developmental packages.

A meeting of the affected villagers and company officials was held under the chairmanship of Bijan Kumar Thumb, the district land acquisition officer. At the meeting, it was decided to form a unified committee of the villagers which will take the issues with the company and the district officials.

According to a district official, Rungta Mines had signed a MoU (memorandum of understanding) with the Orissa government to set up a two million tonne capacity steel plant.

‘The company has already acquired 560 acres of land out of its total requirement of 721 acres. Rungta Mines had almost suspended its construction work for the last five years as no coal block was allocated to the company.

Following the allocation of the coal block, the company attempted to restart construction at the project site on May 22 this year which was resisted by the affected villagers.