Bolangir: The construction of the ambitious Lower Suktel project in Bolangir has been stalled for last two and a half years due to local opposition over bottlenecks in rehabilitation and resettlement issues.
Now, the project work is likely to resume as the government has braced up again to restart the work, a report said.
The state government has appointed a special project director (R&R) to hasten the R&R work. Mahendra Mohapatra, who is the additional project director of Jharsuguda DRDA, has been appointed in this post.
In a letter dated January 4, the general administration and public grievances department has transferred Mohapatra. Besides, Malkangiri tehsildar Gunanidhi Nayak has been appointed as special land acquisition officer of the Lower Suktel project. Two officials will join their work soon.
Locals and the project affected people exuded hope that the two officials would take proactive steps to set right the issue related to rehabilitation and resettlement over which affected people have been stalling the work over years.
Notably, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had laid the foundation stone for the Lower Suktel project November 24, 2001.
In the last 20 years, the project has not made much progress due to protests. The inordinate delay in the project has escalated its cost.
People in 15 villages on one side of the Suktel river were partially affected. It was said that the Land Acquisition Act 2013 will not be applicable to those villages while it will be applicable for 14 other villagers on the other side of the river.
People had raised objections over dual policies in case of compensations for the project affected people. The people supporting the dam project have been demanding compensations as per the Land Acquisition Act-2013.
Now the state government is thinking to pay compensations as ex-gratia to the people who are not eligible under the Land Acquisition Act 2013. Locals had long been demanding appointment of a special officer to sort out the R&R issues.
A directive has been issued to outsource the services of RI, amins and other staff required for the project work, said project engineer Niranjan Rout.
PNN