Odisha HC ‘s green signal to 1600 MW NTPC power plant

Reported By Sandeep Pattanaik
Bhubaneswar, Apr 25:

Deck has been cleared for the National Thermal Power Corporation’s [NTPC] proposed 1600 MW power plant at Dharlipali of Lephripada block under Sundargarh district, with the Odisha high court on Wednesday rejecting the petition terming the land acquisition process of the company not in accordance with the law.

NTPC has completed the acquisition of about 1115.43 acres of land and paid full compensation to the displaced families in January 2013.

The company took possession of the acquired land only on March 18, 2013.

The complainants including Gyanendra Kumar Nayak and Niranjan Patel had cited in their petition that the company had violated the section of 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act. The lawyer for the petitioners had also argued that, there was no advertisement released in any local newspaper regarding the land acquisition in the area.

However, the company had taken into consideration the objections raised by 790 persons while going for the land acquisition and ‘adequately’ compensated the displaced and the land losers in the process, the NTPC advocates Rajat Kumar Rath and B S Tripathy told the HC bench.

The bench headed by the Chief Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel ruled in favour of the company and accorded  green signal to the NTPC power plant in Sundargarh, while dismissing the petition.