These people are Hirakud land oustees. They had to resettle in a new place after their parental land and houses were submerged under the Hirakud dam reservoir in 1956.
And after spending almost six decades in a place amidst several hardships, they have taken the most extreme decision of mass immolation in front of the office of the Tehsildar of Rengali.
Till 2002-03, everything was all right for them and they had a peaceful village life near Rengali, 35 km from here. But the things has got drastically changed after the industrialisation boom.
Transportation of coal to different industries in the roads close to their village emerged as a problem from them. They also had suggested an option. Simply shifting of the coal transport road to 500 metres away from the village could have set things right.
“We requested the district administration earlier to shift the road, but to no effect. Hence, we have to take a drastic step to save us from the unbridled dust pollution,” says Sudhakar Biswal, a resident of Matlucamp.
Notably, 45 families of the Hirakud dam submerged area had resettled in the Matlucamp near Rengali under Khinda gram panchayat in 1956.
But transportation of coal since 2002-03 had turned to be a curse for the villagers. And all their efforts to get rid of this problem have yielded zero results, as they alleged before District Collector Balwant Singh during his visit to Rengali on the grievance day.
They further informed Singh that the previous Collectors had instructed the factories transporting coal close to the village to shift the road by 500 metres, but the latter are yet to carry out the order.
However, Singh assured the villagers for quick action and appealed them to dissuade from such a drastic decision.