Raisuan: Tension flared up near Ardent Steel plant at Phuljhar under Bansapal block in Keonjhar district Sunday when land losers and people affected by the plant staged protests over their multiple demands.
Locals said their land was handed over to the company at throwaway price and the company had assured them of various facilities.
But 10 years have passed since the plant was set up, but no promise of the company was fulfilled, locals alleged.
The company had assured the land losers of giving them jobs, building pucca roads in the nearby villages, making provision of drinking water, education and setting up an English Medium school with residential provision for the local children, but those assurances have not been realised.
Locals accused the company of looting local resources, but doing nothing for the peripheral development.
Even some roads are virtually under occupation of the company while the people have to lead confined lives in villages, they alleged.
The locals set August 25 as a deadline for fulfilling the promises, but the company did nothing. Following this, the locals started an agitation against the company. A platoon of police was deployed in the area as the situation continued to be tense.
PNN
