The IOCL refinery construction site near Paradip. Telegraph picture

Paradip, Aug. 17: To meet land requirement of Indian Oil Corporation Limited’s (IOCL) refinery project, Jagatsinghpur district administration has issued eviction notice to over one hundred families to facilitate acquisition of nearly 17 acres of encroached seaside land on the outskirts of this port town.

Official sources said that acquisition of the land was necessary for uploading and installing cargo consignments for the oil refinery project.

“About 112 families have settled along the Sandhakuda slum clusters. Migrant settlers have occupied the land in an unauthorised manner. The administration has set in motion the process keep the spot at Sandhakuda near Paradip encroachment-free,” said Narayan Chandra Jena, collector of Jagatsinghpur.

Although the persons to be evicted are illegal occupants of the government land, the IOCL has agreed to compensate the affected families. They would be paid a compensation amount after the occupied land is vacated,” he said.

“The encroachers were served notices under the Orissa Prevention of Land Encroachment (OPLE) Act, 1 972, asking them to vacate the land at the earliest. If they do not vacate the land on their own, we will forcefully evict them”, collector Jena told The Telegraph.

The IOCL is gearing up to undertake projects such as construction of sea surge protection wall and laying of underground pipelines for the oil refinery project.

The families, which will be displaced, are willing to part with the encroached land.

But they have demanded resettlement before the government acquires the land for the project.

“About 455 migrant Bengali and Telugu families have been occupying nearly 264 acres in Sandhakuda for over four decades. The state government was vested with the original ownership of the land. But it was leased out to Paradip Port Trust after it came up in 1964. However, the area became encroached as the port trust left the land vacant,” said Vasudev Pradhan, tehsildar of Kujang.

“The people living in Sandhakuda slum clusters come in handy as skilled and unskilled labours for construction activities in and around the port town. Most of the slum-dwellers possess voters’ identity cards and public distribution system ration cards. They, therefore, have the right for resettlement,” he said.