NALCO victims of Damanjodi call on Union Mines Minister & Petroleum Minister, seek Justice
A delegation of NALCO Land Affected Person’s Association (Substantially Affected Persons), Damanjodi in the District of Koraput, Odisha led by BJD Youth Leader & Human Rights Activist Mr. Sankar Prasad Duria met and submitted the Memorandum to honorable Union Minister of Mines Sj. Piyush Goyal and Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan for Proper Rehabilitation, Compensation and Employment to the Land Losers. The delegation was accompanied by Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha, Koraput) Sj. Jhina Hikaka, LAP President Mr. Bhimadhar Khillo and the member of the Association Mr. Muralidhar Sahu.
Mr. Duria demanded jobs as per the qualification of the land losers and compensation since 1981 onwards. The team requested both the Union Minister of Mines as well as Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas to intervene in the matter of land losers of Damanjodi for justice.
Mr. Duria said, the acquisition area under NALCO Project at Damanjodi in Koraput District comes under Fifth Schedule of the Constitution and the land losers mostly belong to Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and downtrodden people and they purely depend on agriculture for their livelihood. For decades after decades they have been depending on those lands for their livelihood. But after the acquisition of the land by NALCO they have been left as landless and jobless and they are struggling for their survival.
That, after decades of struggle in this regard, the District Collector of Koraput and NALCO authorities have jointly identified 416 numbers of land losers (Land Affected Persons) of NALCO, Damanjodi with vide letter No. 250/2014 dated. 20.06.2014. Later, the District Administration along with NALCO Administration reduced the land losers to 235 number of Substantial Affected Persons (SAP) with some criteria vide Letter No. R&REH 30/14-8682/R&DM dated. 20.03.2015. Even, the hon’ble Chief Minister of Odisha directed the NALCO Administration for providing jobs to 235 numbers of SAP families as per the qualification of the land losers with vide Letter No. 1159 dated. 31.07.2015.
The honorable Chief Minister of Odisha on 27.07.2015 expressed that the issue of SAP has to be sorted out in a month’s time and action taken report has to be submitted to RDC and RDC should monitor this. The SAP issue should not be kept pending for more than 3 months from today. Despite the intervention of hon’ble Chief Minister of Odisha the NALCO administration remained silent, deaf and dumb on this matter.