Villagers oppose JSPL CTL plant in Angul

Thursday, 09 Jun 2011

TNN reported that tesidents of four gram Panchayats in Angul district have strongly protested the setting up of a proposed coal to liquid plant at Durgapur village by Jindal Steel and Power Limited.

Opposing the move, people, including women, under the banner of Krushaka and Krushi Jami Surakshya Samiti from four gram panchayats demonstrated before the district collectorate here at Angul on Friday. The villagers also took out a massive rally in Angul town. They submitted a memorandum to the chief minister and the President of India to look into the matter.

Mr Satrughana Sahoo a resident of Durgapur village said that "The Angul-Talcher region has already been enlisted as the seventh most critically polluted region in the country. The environment of the region will be more polluted if the CTL project starts.”

Mr Sahoo added that "After declaring it as one of the most critically polluted areas, the Union ministry of environment and forest (MOEF) had recently imposed a moratorium on further industrialization of the area, and directed the state pollution control board to prepare an action plan.

The CTL Plant will affect people of 15 to 20 villages. The company will acquire 4,000 acres of private land. It will also use 90 cusecs of water from river Mahanadi.

CTL is a process of coal liquefaction that allows coal to be utilized as an alternative to oil and Jindal Symflex, a subsidiary of Jindal will execute the project using German Lurgi technologies at an investment of INR 42,000 crore. The project is scheduled to complete in six years and would produce 80,000 barrels of diesel and other petroleum products in a day. (sourced from TOI)