The 3,000-MW NTPC-Kaniha thermal power plant at Talcher is again in a critical condition as thousands of people including women of village Derenga stopped the NTPC ash pond work on Wednesday demanding mass displacement. Recently, the plant was in bad condition due to short supply of coal for continuing strike by peripheral villagers.
Around 5,000 villagers of Dereng of Kaniha block of Angul district, who are in between the two ash ponds of the NTPC and th Jindal India Thermal Power ltd (JITPl), are alleging severe coal ash pollution. leading the strike, Derenga village president Bichhanda Sahu, Samiti Member Damayati Sahu, Susanta Sahu , Subhalaxmi Sahu, Renu Manjari Behera & Sebati Sahu said that since last 15 years, they have been demanding mass displacement due to ash pollution. Meanwhile in the Gram Sabah, the villagers of Badahira and Masunihata consented to give their land for the expansion work of the NTPC ash pond. This has also irked the Derenga villagers.
However, due to the strike at the NTPC ash pond, all construction and maintenance works have been stopped. The ash disposal from the plant has been affected, which may lead to shutdown of all six units of the plant, said NTPC sources.
As the ash disposal has been affected, fugitive emissions have increased and the total area is now affected by severe pollution.
Apart from it, as the maintenance work has been stopped, sprinklers could not be operated in the ash pond; and the peripheral villages are under threat of sever ash pollution. “The whole ash pond and so also the NTOC power plant, which is supplying power to Odisha and 17 southern, eastern and North East States at this peak hour, is under serious threat due to the ash pond strike,” said the NTPC sources.