File picture of Suktel project activists on relay hunger strike at a camp in Balangir

Balangir/Bhubaneswar Sept. 12: Lower Suktel Action Committee members today stepped up their agitation and issued a 72-hour ultimatum to the Odisha government to initiate talks with them on the Lower Suktel project.

The committee members said if the government did not begin dialogue with them within 72 hours, they would issue a call for boycotting Nuakhai, the most famous festival of Western Odisha, which is scheduled to begin next week.

Congress leader from western Odisha and former law minister Narasingh Mishra said: “People are being harassed by the government. The government does not want development of the region. Not a single project has taken off in western Odisha.”

Stating that every project in western Odisha has been delayed, Mishra said: “The medical college project remains a daydream. Despite being issued a no-objection certificate and 40 acres of land, the medical college is yet to be set up in Balangir.”

Similarly, the Western Odisha Development Council’s headquarters are yet to be set up despite assurance from the government, said Mishra.

Other leaders from western Odisha also said the people were being let down as none of their demands, including setting up a branch of Orissa High Court in the region, had been considered.

“The government should give priority to the development of western Odisha,” said BJP leader K.V. Singh Deo.

Making a strong plea for immediate commencement of the construction of the Suktel project, Singh Deo said: “Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had sanctioned the project from the Red Fort in New Delhi in 1998. At that time, the project cost was estimated at Rs 217 crore, which has now escalated to Rs 1,040 crore.”

Congress MLAs Santosh Singh Saluja and Surendra Singh Bhoi, who had staged a dharna outside the Assembly demanding immediate construction of the project, said: “The BJD government, which came to power in 2000, has been sitting over the project for the last 12 years,” adding that not a single project had materialised in western Odisha.

In another development, the hunger strike by the activists of the Lower Suktel Action Committee reached its 17th day today. Forty-two persons, including president of the committee Gopaljee Panigrahi, were admitted to the district headquarters hospital here after their health conditions deteriorated.

Co-ordinator of the committee Arun Mishra said: “On September 5, the government had announced on the floor of the Assembly that work on the project would start from September 27 and officials would meet the striking activists. However, even after a week, no one has come to meet the agitating members of the committee. We have thus decided to give an ultimatum of 72 hours to the government.”

Talking about the committee’s future course of action, Mishra said that they would forcibly close down the district collectorate for an indefinite period and MPs and MLAs of the ruling party from the district would face stiff opposition from agitators.

“We will oppose the visit of the BJD MLAs and MPs to the district and gherao their houses in Balangir. It has also been decided that the villagers of the project area would not observe Nuakhai,” he said.