The villagers of Kashipali, Mangalpur and Pitapali under Rengali tehsil, who are land oustees of the Hirakud Dam Project, have finally given an ultimatum to the administration to close construction work of a stone crusher and bitumen plants in their village within seven days or else they would resort to an agitation.
In a memorandum to the RDC (ND) here, they narrated their problems and said that the two projects were being constructed at Kashipali village without any permission of the Government.
These units are under construction by the l&T Company for the widening of the Sambalpur-Rourkela SH 10. But from the day one, the villagers have been protesting the construction apprehending that the dust and the smoke to be emitted from the two units would make life miserable for them and they may be compelled to accept displacement for a second time.
Sashi Bhushan Panda, a villager, said his co-villagers apprehend that the ground water level in the locality would get badly affected due to massive use by these plants.
“When there are vast stretches of vacant land in other places, we fail to understand why the l&T Company is so much interested for establishing its units near human habitations and create law and order situation. We also can’t understand the reason behind the silence of the local and the district administration,” he said further.