The delay is due to the fact that the stone quarry on Dankari hill is yet to be closed down despite the chief secretary’s letter directing the district administration to do so
Jajpur: The proposed Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) depot at Dankari in this district moved a step ahead after a team led by the firm’s CEO visited the site.
The oil depot is being established at Dankari in Dharmasala tehsil in Jajpur district to provide petroleum products at times of emergency. The 3.7 million mt depot will be the fourth largest in the country.
The decision of the Centre to establish the depot at Dankari was welcomed by all quarters. The Union finance minister had announced an outlay of Rs 3,800 crore for the project in the 2017-18 Budget.
The Union cabinet had given its nod for the project June 27. However, work on the project is disappointing as the state government has not yet identified land.
IOCL CEO Ajay Dasra said the state government’s delay in identifying land has delayed the project.
Talking to the media, Dasra said the project is being established by the Centre in coordination with the state government. As a result, the project can never take off unless land identification, acquisition and other things gets completed.
Currently maps of the surveyed land and adjoining village land are being reviewed to speed up the project and soon steps will be taken, he said.
The delay is due to the fact that the stone quarry on Dankari hill is yet to be closed down despite the chief secretary’s letter directing the district administration to do so. Five months have passed but the order is yet to be implemented.
The district administration argued against the project claiming that if the project gets established the state will lose a massive revenue of Rs 1413.86 crore per annum which it is receiving from the black stone quarries.
This is the reason due to which the state government is dillydallying in providing land for the project. The role of the tehsildar in clearing land acquisition hurdles is ambiguous.
The Dharmasala tehsildar in his letter 1186, dated-12.04.2018 had urged the Jajpur SP to close all black stone quarries in Dankari hill, but his request was not executed.
Later, the tehsildar in his letter-1189, dated April 12, 2018 to the collector argued that the state will face a revenue loss Rs 1414 crore if the three licensed and 13 other quarries which are awaiting clearance are closed down.
On the other hand stone smugglers are openly extracting black stones from the quarries worth several lakhs by using movable crushers. While the state government is losing revenue, the local tehsildar has closed his eyes to such illegalities in exchange for cuts, it was alleged.
Tehsildar Prabhas Kumar Behura said land acquisition and compensation were discussed during the visit to the site with the IOCL CEO.
PNN