The scheduled public hearing for establishment of two new units of the Rourkela Steel Plant, Hot Strip Mill and Pellet Plant, and expansion of its Special Plate Plant could not be held due to protest by locals.

District administration officials called off the public and said the meeting would be held on a later date.

Sources said the RSP has already expanded its production capacity from 2 million tonnes  to 4.5 MT recently. It has once again planned to expand some of its downstream units like a new Hot Strip Mill with annual capacity of 3.2 MT, a new pellet plant with 2 MT annual production capacity. Besides, the RSP has also planned to expand its Special Plate Plant’s capacity from 0.003 MT to 0.015 MT.

For this proposed units, the State Pollution Control Board had served a notice to conduct a public hearing at the Fertilizer stadium.

Though a sizeable crowd gathered at the meeting venue, yet an unruly scene was witnessed soon as a clash between supporter of Biramitrapur MlA George Tirkey and Raghunathpalli MlA Subrat Tarai erupted. Senior BJD leader and Raghunathpalli MlA Subrat  Tarai along with his supporters opposed the public hearing.

 “The RSP has already gone through two phases of expansion and before going for third expansion, people must know how many locals have been engaged in the new units by RSP,” Tarai said.

Biramitrapur MlA George Tirkey in a different move argued in favor of public hearing. “The public hearing is the rights of public and no one can stop them from expressing their views,” said Tirkey.

He added, “The displaced people of the RSP have been settled in different parts of the district and therefore they have every right to participate in the public hearing.”

These verbal arguments led to a brief clash between the supporters of the two MlAs.