Odisha govt asks Angul district administration to directly tell people about rehabilitation package

The Odisha government has asked the Angul district administration to directly communicate with the proposed affected people and keep middlemen away while settling the rehabilitation package for operation of Mandakini coal block allotted to NTPC.

A direction in this regard was issued by Chief Secretary A K Tripathy on Thursday while reviewing and resolving the issues related to exploration from Mandakini coal mines.

"Explain the proposed affected people properly about the rehabilitation package," Tripathy said, adding that proper housing with basic infrastructure facilities must be made in rehabilitation sites.

The matters relating to the conduct of Socio-Economic Survey (SES), processing of forest diversion proposal, getting the environmental clearances from the statutory authority in Government of India, drilling activities by the Central Mine Planning and Design Institute for estimating resource quality and preparation of scientific mining plan and others were discussed in the meeting.

Tripathy directed the Angul District Collector to prepare a comprehensive rehabilitation package as per provisions of the Coal Bearing Area Development Act and the rehabilitation policy of the state.

"Odishas rehabilitation policy is a very dynamic and progressive one, and proper packaging of the compensation awards would be beneficial to the people", Tripathy said, adding that the mine developing authorities were asked to design rehabilitation package as per local requirement in consultation with district authorities.

He told the district collector, SDO and Tahasildar of the area to communicate with would be affected people directly without any middleman and explain to them properly about the 'rehabilitation package'. Additional Chief Secretary, Forest and Environment Mona Sharma said the forest diversion proposal would be sent to the Union Ministry of Forest and Environment in the coming week.

Principal Secretary, Steel and Mines Surendra Kumar said that Nabkrushna Choudhury Center for Development Studies made the pre-study preparations for Socio-Economic Survey. It was decided to start SES and non-coal proving operations in the coming week, he said.

Other than state government officials, NTPC CMD Gurdeep Singh along with senior officers from concerned departments participated in the discussions.

The NTPC has been allocated the Mandakini coal block in Angul district.