Paradip, Aug. 18: People, who were displaced due to the oil refinery project in the town, have decided to stop the project by resorting to a fast-unto-death agitation, seeking permanent jobs in the company.

They have given a two-week deadline to the company.

The agitation threat is likely to pose a fresh hurdle to the timely commissioning of the Rs 30,000-crore project. After several hold-ups, Indian Oil Corporation Limited had rescheduled the full-fledged commissioning of the project by December 2014.

Last month, the Jagatsinghpur district administration had stopped the refinery’s underground pipeline laying near seaside Sandhakuda on the ground that the work was being done without administrative permission. That job is yet to resume as the government agencies and port authorities are locked in dispute over the patch of land.

“The company has meted out a raw deal to them. The displaced families have neither been rehabilitated nor have been provided employment even as the oil company is all set to commission the refinery by 2014 year end,” said a displaced family member Akhsyaya Kumar Behera.

“I had to part with an acre for the project. Though I received the compensation, the company has not provided employment to at least one of my family members. The company had committed to engage at least one member from each of the displaced family at the Rehabilitation and Peripheral Development Advisory Committee meeting. But, it has not kept up its promise,” said another displaced person, Suresh Chandra Behera.

“The company acquired 3,344 acres in 2002 from landowners at throwaway prices. Compensation award was hardly Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh per acre. The displaced families had pinned hopes that would be suitably resettled and their family members would be given job in the mega refinery project. But, nothing has come off as yet since over a decade. The company has let them down,” said Behera.

General manager (HR) of the Paradip oil refinery project W.R. Barbara said: “As many as 143 displaced families have been provided with 10 decimal homestead land per family at Dhinkia. They have also been given cash compensation according to the Odisha rehabilitation and resettlement policy. So far, we have engaged more than 80 people from the displaced families on contractual payroll. Permanent job recruitment would be done only after the commissioning of the project. The cases of the displaced families will be prioritised. Preference would be given to local candidates during permanent recruitment. The Rs 2.15-crore worth peripheral development activity of the neighbouring villages has been undertaken by the oil company.”