Former Rajya Sabha MP and BJP State vice-president Rudra Narayan Pany has slammed the district administration of Dhenkanal for deliberately avoiding a meeting of the Rehabilitation Periphery Development Advisory Committee (RPDAC) for a discussion on several issues pertaining to the Bhushan Steel limited (BSl).
Speaking to the BSl land losers at Odapada on Saturday, Pany said after the Bhushan Steel furnace blast on November 13 last, it was expected that the administration would hold the RPDAC meeting to address the grievances of the people, but in vain.
Pany charged that the administration was deliberately avoiding the RPDAC meeting since the company was able to make the Government dance to its tune at the cost of the local people who have lost their land and the workers who have been working under hazardous working conditions.
The district unit of the party threatened to hold a stir if the administration does not change its stance on the plant and makes further delays in holding the meeting. Besides Pany, district BJP president Naresh Chandra Mohapatra and Bhushan land losers’ association president Minaketan Amat were present.
Pany also attended a meeting of the party’s working committee at Dhenkanal and expressed grave concern over the delays by the Indian Railways in completing an over bridge at Rameswarpur near the district headquarters town. Former Sadar MlA Krushna Chandra Patra, leader Ramachandra Patra, former municipality chairman Sunil Sharma and councilor Nabin Delei who attended the meeting along with Pany also expressed their anguish over the apathy of the administration at solving the drinking water scarcity problem of the town.