Activists block the road at Pardhiapali near Balangir to protest against the Lower Suktel irrigation project. Telegraph picture

Balangir, Sept. 26: Hundreds of Lower Suktel Budi Anchal Sangram Parishad (LSBASP) activists today protested against the initiative of the government to start work on the Lower Suktel irrigation project from tomorrow.

People, who would be displaced by the project and have been opposing the dam for the past 10 years, marched to the site where the Odisha Construction Corporation (OCC) will build the spillway for the project and chanted slogans against the government and the project.

The agitators also staged road blockade at Pardhiapali village, the site for the dam, and prohibited entry of officials to the site. Five platoons of police with two officers of DSP rank have been deployed at the project site to maintain law and order.

Sources said at least a hundred anti-dam activists took out a rally to the proposed dam site where they have planted several red flags to mark the area as “prohibited”.

The parishad members said they would oppose any kind of work at the dam site tomorrow.

Secretary of the Lower Suktel Budi Anchal Sangram Parishad Satya Banchhor said: “We have been opposing the dam for the past 10 years and will continue to do so. The government has decided to go ahead with the project work without taking us into confidence. We demand that instead of a big dam, the government should take up construction of smaller structures for irrigation. The government seems to have a hidden agenda of providing water from the project to industries that will come up in future. If the government is so concerned about irrigation for the farmers, it should sign an agreement with them saying the water from the project will be used only for agriculture,” Banchhor said.

Pabitra Gadtia, another activist, said the government had not yet acquired his land, which was on the site of the spillway.

“My land has not been acquired and I have not yet been compensated, yet the government has decided to go ahead with the work. My family land is right on the place where the spillway work will begin. How can they begin work without acquiring the land? We will oppose any kind of work here tomorrow.”

Chief construction engineer of the Lower Suktel Irrigation Project Ramachandra Padhi was, however, adamant and said work would begin tomorrow. “It is the job of the district administration to sort out the various problems of the displaced people. We are here to take up the construction and we will begin it tomorrow on schedule,” Padhi said.

The Lower Suktel Action Committee, which is agitating in favour of the project, suffered a setback with co-ordinator of the committee Arun Mishra resigning from his post.

Though Mishra claimed that he had resigned, president of the committee Gopaljee Panigrahi said the former had been sacked after various people brought charges against him. Mishra said he would now support the Sangram Parishad to oppose any kind of work at the project site on Thursday.