New rehabilitation package for Tata's Gopalpur project

Odisha government today said an appropriate rehabilitation package would soon be announced for the affected people of Tata's Gopalpur project in Ganjam district even as they (people) received assistance as per the guidelines of mid-90s.
"The district administration of Ganjam has been preparing a rehabilitation package for the Gopalpur project. The new package will be announced after approval of the state government," Revenue and Disaster Management Minister S N Patro said in the assembly while replying to questions from members.
Though the state government had handed over 2,952 acres to Tata for setting up a steel plant at Gopalpur in Ganjam district, the project failed to take off due to different reasons, including slowdown in the steel market in the mid-90s and non-availability of water in the area.

Of the total 2,220 affected families, 1559 families were displaced for Tata's Gopalpur project. While 574 families were settled in rehabilitation colony, 883 families were given land for settlement.
The affected people, however, demanded that they should be given package as per the state government's 2006 R & R policy as the project was not implemented so far. The minister said that it was not possible to exactly implement provisions under the 2006 R & R Policy for the projects taken up before 2000.
The state government, however, considered the case of the Gopalpur project affected people sympathetically and asked the district administration to prepare a new package, the minister said outside the house.

As the land remained unused for above a decade, the affected families could not get adequate benefit from the project, pointed out Pradeep Panigrahy, BJD MLA from Gopalpur.
"I come from one of the affected families. The local people want setting up the plant. As the project is not coming up, we are being denied benefits," Panigrahy said.