The betel vine growers of several Kujanga villages are under threat. They have alleged that hundreds of betel vines are threatened to be ruined due to poisonous gas discharged by the IOCl Paradip Refinery for the last few days.
The effect of the gas is that it burns the betel leaves leading to their premature fall. Dhinkia Sarpanch Salila Nayak, Samiti member Tilotamma Parida, trade union leader Kishor Parida and social activists Ranjan Bardhan, Dipti Ranjan Swain met district Collector BK Upadhaya in this regard and sought intervention of the administration.
The affected villages are in Dhinkia, Trilochanpur, Nuagaon, Govindapur under Kujanga areas and adjacent to Paradip refinery site. Reports said that the livelihood of these affected families depends largely on the betel vine cultivation. They had protested tooth and nail when the Odisha Government had proposed setting up Posco steel plant and given their vociferous protest, the Government had excluded their village from the project ambit in the year 2013.
Meanwhile, Paradip refinery authority replied that the project has been giving prime importance to the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) study which was undertaken before the project commencement to assess the probable effect and changes in eco-system. The plant clarified that adequate facilities have been provided to monitor ambient air quality in the locality.
The House Committee on Environment of the Odisha Assembly had visited the refinery and expressed their satisfaction on the measures taken towards pollution, informed senior Paradip Refinery manager Manjushree Singh.