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Nalco move gives sleepless nights to villagers

KORAPUT: “We are prepared to return the compensation amount that was given by NALCO as rehabilitation package if we are not offered the benefits of Land Displaced Persons (LDP)” , Khemundu Dami, a youth from Ambogaon, in Mathalput panchayat of Koraput block said today.

The villagers have been forced to spend sleepless nights for the fear of action by the local police for the last few months, especially after NALCO authorities had asked them to vacate the village so as to facilitate construction of a long boundary wall, he added. Ambogaon, a revenue village was affected by displacement actions by the company for establishing the factory way back in 1982. While more than 500 acres of agricultural land of the villagers was acquired by the company, the village was kept away from receiving the benefits of the entire exercise.

The village with a population of 465 people had to remain silent without getting a proper compensation package as repeated appeals to grant the status of LDP to its habitants had failed to impress anyone, Damodar Jani, convener of Koraput Tribal Forum, said.

The villagers who primarily depended upon cultivation in the mountainous land near the village were since then forced to work as daily labourers in the factory area for the meagre compensation that they had received against the lost land, he added.

While the villagers had lost the land on record, NALCO, on the other hand had not made use of the acquired land giving scope for the villagers to continue cultivating in about 100 acres of land adjacent to their village boundaries while continuing their fight for their rights to get the status of LDP similar to that of the displaced persons near NALCO plant at Anugul enjoyed, Niranjan Bhoi, an educated unemployed youth from the village informed. Even though Anugul and Damanjodi are from the same state and NALCO being the same company at both the places, he was surprised over the discrimination made in giving the compensation. While on the one hand the people who had lost their land near Anugul received the benefits of being the LDPs enjoying employment in the company apart from the handsome compensation package, no one on the other hand had received any employment in the plant from Ambagaon, he added. While the company had asked the villagers to stop cultivation of the land, they also had received serious warnings from the policemen of mass arrest, he alleged.

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