Bhubaneswar: The displaced villagers of an opencast mining project of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) in Sundargarh district have boycotted the simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in Odisha.

The displaced people of at least five villages, including those of Jhupurunga, Kiripasira and Tumulia, today did not exercise their franchise to protest against the MCL authorities’ failure to settle their Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) claims as per the direction of the Supreme Court (SC).

The displaced villagers, in a meeting on May 17, had taken a decision to boycott the twin polls over the R&R issues. The villagers alleged that the R&R issues remained unresolved even though they have been agitating over the same for last 30 years.

According to the villagers, the SC in its November 3, 2022 order, had directed the MCL authorities to settle the R&R claims of displaced people of 14 villages, including Gadatumulia, Jhupuranga, Ratansara, Kiripasira, Bangurkala, Tikilipada and Sardega, within nine months. However, the authorities concerned did not obey the SC order, they alleged.

The SC had directed the MCL authorities to provide 10 decimal homestead land and house to each of the displaced families of the mining project, claimed the agitators.

They further claimed that the MCL authorities had agreed to provide jobs to at least one person from each of the displaced families under the Odisha Resettlement and Rehabilitation Policy -2006 and Odisha Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act-2013. However, the authorities of MCL are yet to provide jobs to the displaced people, they alleged.

The displaced people had gheraoed the district Collector’s office on March 14 this year and threatened to boycott the polls if immediate steps are not taken to settle their R&R claims.

Notably, five Lok Sabha seats—Bargarh, Sundargarh, Balangir, Kandhamal and Aska—and 35 Assembly seats under them went for polling in the second phase polls in the state today.