Villagers at Arru sat on a daylong dharna on Wednesday demanding SAIL to start production at the 30-acre land acquired for its plant.

Vijay Kumar Mithu, the convener of Arru Steel Processing Plant Construction Struggle Committee that started the dharna, said a memorandum had also been sent to governor Devanand Konwar.

In the memorandum, Mithu has said then Union steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan had performed bhoomi pujan on December 3, 2008, at the village in Wazirganj block for setting up a steel processing plant of SAIL.

However, the plant is yet to see the light of the day as the state government has not issued an NoC for the acquired land citing it as agriculture land not fit for industrial use.

Gaya Sadar SDO Paritosh Kumar said an application for issuing the NoC has been filed by SAIL before the Wazirganj circle officer around a month back.