ANGUL: People of the JSPL-affected villagers have called a dawn-to-dusk bandh on Tuesday demanding immediate fulfilment of their 20-point charter of demands. Expressing dissatisfaction over the decisions taken at the tripartite meeting on Friday, the villagers under the aegis of Praja Sangh took the bandh decision on Sunday. “We stick to our guns and the Sangh has rejected the decisions taken at Friday’s meeting,” said Sanatan Sahu, the secretary of the Sangh. Sahu was critical that no help came in the way of the injured villagers even after 13 days since the violence broke out on the plant premises. Even as the JSPL authorities have been publicly offering to help the injured villagers and bear all their expenses, help of any kind is yet to reach the affected villagers. The people alleged that lack of administrative will had resulted in the deadlock as a result of which, hundreds of villagers, including women, have been suffering. Meanwhile, the company on Sunday deposited ` 10 lakh with the local Sub-Collector for treatment of the injured villagers, said JSPL Executive Director Rajesh Jha. Another ` 5 lakh will also be released for the purpose. The company, in a release, claimed that it followed the State Rehabilitation Policy of 2006 in ‘letter and spirit’ for providing jobs to the land oustees and the completely displaced families. It assured people to give them more employment opportunities as and when project works progress. It also assured to provide job cards within three months with the help of district administration. On the land acquisition, the company said the matter was settled in 2008 as per the State Government’s rule and the decision of the Rehabilitation and Peripheral Development Advisory Committee. The company also offered to engage in more talks with the people as agreed to in the last tripartite meeting to sort out the remaining issues.
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