IOCL to acquire required seaside land Stalemate over acquisition of seaside land presently under illegal occupation of slum dwellers has been resolved. With the Indian Oil Corporation Limited officials dashing off a series of letters seeking handover of seaside land at Sandhakuda for the oil refinery project, the Jagatsinghpur district administration has decided to compensate the encroachers in terms of monetary benefits and rehabilitation in a suitable location.“Not whole of the encroached land at Sandhakuda is being acquired at present. The land that is required for the refinery project is being taken possession of. The number of would-be-displaced families has been scaled down to 132. Earlier it was planned to evict all the 434 families from the encroached Government land”, said Mr. Surajit Das, Additional District Magistrate, Paradip.
To meet with land requirement of the IOCL’s oil refinery project, the Jagatsinghpur district revenue administration has issued eviction notices to 132 families for acquisition of about 17 acres of encroached seaside land on the outskirts of Paradip Port Town. The eviction drive would be carried out next month. In the event of any resistance from the settlers, they would be forcibly evicted. The encroachment-free land would be handed over to the Paradip oil refinery project for the spreading out of underground pipelines, Mr. Das told this reporter.
The exercise to evict the encroachers has become a prerequisite for uploading and installing cargo consignments for the oil refinery project. Besides, the underground pipelines to be spread out would traverse through the coastal land.
“The identified families unlawfully settling along the Sandhakuda slum clusters are being evicted to expedite the construction work of the IOCL project. It has now become imperative to provide the project, which is of national importance, with the required land”, stated Jagatsinghpur Collector Satya Kumar Mallick.
“The encroachers have been served notices under the Orissa Prevention of Land Encroachment (OPLE) Act, 1972 asking them to vacate the unlawfully occupied land at the earliest. If they do not do on their own accord, they are going to forcefully evicted from the place”, the Collector added.
The would-be displaced persons are illegal occupants of Government land. Still keeping in mind humanitarian consideration, they are being financially compensated for the loss of their place of habitation. IOCL has also agreed to compensate the affected families. The displaced families would be resettled in a spot on the outskirts of the Port Town.
Despite an estimated 85% progress of project work, the ambitious Rs. 29,777- crore worth Paradip Oil Refinery Project is pegged for further delay. Plagued by multiplicity of hurdles, the scheduled commissioning of the project has got delayed.
The IOCL authorities in a status report submitted to the Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry pointed out several factors leading to the delayed commissioning of the refinery project, said a company official.
The non-availability of the required land near the seaside patches for the laying of underground pipelines was cited as one of the principal factors for the delayed progress.
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