Balangir: Residents of 29 villages, which would be affected by the Lower Suktel Irrigation project, on Wednesday attended a meet called by district collector Arindam Dakua at the office of the project's chief engineer to ventilate their concerns.

The district administration's initiative has drawn applaud from various quarters.

Members of the Lower Suktel Budi Anchal Sangram Parishad told the collector that they had been opposing it since the beginning. Its vice-president Udaya Singh Thakur said they were still opposing the project. "Still we are opposing it. We are in favour of smaller projects such as check dams in place of the large one - which can be done without displacements," he said.

He said they had paid the price and also were victimised for opposing it. "Time and again, we have been victimised for opposing the project. We want you to visit the villages and take stock of the situation," he told the collector.

Villagers of Pardhiapali said that as so many people had been invited to the meeting, it was not possible for the collector to do justice to everyone. The villagers submitted the collector a written request, asking him to visit their villages.

Upendra Sahu of Agragami, an outfit fighting for the rights of the displaced villagers, said the initiative would help the adminis-tration to address the villagers' issues.

"Let it be a continuous affair. Also it would be good if such hearing is organised in the affected villages and at least once every month," he said.

Dakua said the administration had started an initiative to address the issues of the affected villagers. He said that in the rehabilitation and peripheral advisory committee meetings, many small issues came up. "We will also go to the villages to hear them. This will be held every month," he said.

The Rs 1,041-crore project has been hanging fire for at least 12 years because of the warring situation between the pro-dam and anti-dam activists. The project had finally started in April 2013. When completed, the project is estimated to irrigate 29,146 hectares in Balangir and 2,684 hectares in Sonepur districts covering 189 villages.