Naveen seeks PM's intervention for people affected by power

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today urged the Prime Minister to instruct NTPC to address the concerns of 27 villages in Jharsuguda district to be adversely hit by a 1600 MW super thermal power project being set up in Chhattisgarh.
"NTPC is setting up a 1600 (2X800) MW Super Thermal Power Project at Lara in Chhattisgarh at a distance of about two km from the border of Odisha," Patnaik said in a letter to Narendra Modi.
Twenty-seven villages of Kandeikela, Remata, Kanaktora, Charpali, Pithinda and Badimal gram panchayats of Lakhanpur block in the said disrict will be adversely affected by the project, he said.

It is learnt that while public hearing regarding Environment Impact Assessment has been done in the villages affected by this project in Chhattisgarh, no such public hearing had taken place in the project-affected villages in Odisha, the Chief Minister claimed.
It is also learnt that CSR activities in nine villages in Chhattisgarh have started, Patnaik said, adding when this project is commissioned the environment, livelihood and health conditions of the people of the 27 villages of Odisha will be seriously impacted.
Stating that this issue has been constantly hammmered by the afffected people and their representatives, particularly the Bargarh MP and Brajarajnagar MLA, the chief minister said he had also taken up the matter with the Union Minister for Power and Renewable Energy.

"In view of the sensitivity of the issue involved, I would request you to kindly intervene in the matter and issue suitable instructions to the NTPC authorities to address the genuine concerns of the people of the project-affected people of our state," Patnaik said.