A section of the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) displaced people have been staging a hunger strike in front of the ADM office here for the last five days demanding jobs in the plant. One on the agitators, Mangal Mochi, fell ill and was hospitalised on Monday.
It is alleged that if the district administration fails to act soon, many of the agitators may fall sick. Though there is provision that the health of the hunger strike agitators are checked up twice a day yet nothing of this sort have been done.
Source said the district administration had in 2009 assured the displaced people that 163 of them would get job in the RSP. But none of them has been given a job yet. Prior to their strike, the ADM had told them that all relevant documents have been handed over to the RSP.
Consequently, they contacted the RSP Personnel department to know about the development. Officials here said that recruitment process has been halted as the plant authorities found it difficult to identify them as displaced family members. This angered them and they gave a 15-day ultimatum to the district administration. As their demands were not addressed, they started the hunger strike on June 20.