Baliapal: Public hearing on the ambitious petrochemicals project proposed near the coast of Baliapal in Balasore district was started Friday, but the project faced its road block when people of Jambirai panchayat and activists of Upakula Bhitamati Surakhya Committee strongly opposed it.
Reports said, despite restrictions and social distancing due to COVID-19, the administration notified local people for a public hearing. However, the hearing was postponed due to opposition.
On the other hand, the state government has signed a memorandum of understanding with Chennai-based Creative Port Ltd and Tata Company to set up the Surbarnarekha port at Choumuhani. Since then, efforts are on to hasten the land acquisition process.
The Odisha government has also signed an MoU with Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd proposing to invest Rs 28,700 crore for setting up an integrated refinery and petrochemicals facility near the post.
The public hearing is being held for acquisition of 35,00 acres of land in five panchayats including Anladiha, Nuagan and Jambirai.
The administration had earlier notified people to hold public hearing on the premises of Baliapal tehsil. Later, the administration wanted to hold the hearing about 25 km away from the tehsil.
Opposing the public hearing, hundreds of locals staged protests. Shouting slogans against the government, the project opponents like Anuj Mohapatra, Akbar Shah and Kushadhar Jena said,” We will rather die, but will not spare an inch of land for the proposed project.”
They submitted a memorandum to the tehsildar, seeking a public hearing at the village to obtain consent of people. ADM Sambit Kumar Nayak and sub-collector Nilu Mohapatra were present at the public hearing.
When asked about the issue, tehsildar Deepak Das, however, said it was not a public hearing, rather a meeting on land encroachment in the area.
Das added that action would be taken against the encroachers. It may be noted that Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) will invest Rs 28,700 crore in the first phase of the project while it aims to invest Rs 70,000 crore in total.
The HPL’s petrochemical project and the port will benefit each other. The HPL unit plans to produce 1.6 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of paraxylene and 2.5 mtpa of purified terepthalic acid (PTA), and light naphtha and petrol.
PNN