Bhubaneswar Sept. 28: A Congress delegation today met Odisha governor M.C. Bhandare and urged him to direct the Odisha government to announce a suitable compensation package for those who would be displaced by the lower Suktel irrigation project in Balangir district.

Leader of the delegation former party MP Sarat Patnaik pointed out that the state government had announced the construction of the project during the last session of the state Assembly without announcing a package for the displaced.

“The government must consult all stakeholders, affected villagers, local administration and the project authority on this issue. After the rehabilitation plan is initiated, the state government may initiate construction in the project area,” Patnaik said.

He cautioned that if the government went ahead without a proper rehabilitation policy, it might lead to unrest in the area and affect project work.

The irrigation project, which was sanctioned 12 years ago, has failed to take off because of resistance by the displaced people. The government had earlier announced that it would begin the work of a spillway of the project from September 27. The work could not take off after 100 members of the Lower Suktel Budi Anchal Sangram Parishad staged an agitation.

The people, who would be displaced by the project, marched to the site where Odisha Construction Corporation is to take up the construction of the spillway and chanted slogans against both the government and the project.