By Rajesh Kumar Behera
Hundreds of sea side villagers of Rajnagar block in Kendrapara district sat on hunger strike in front of District collector’s office on Monday demanding before the state government to initiate steps by signing MoU to build a port at Barunei river mouth.
Addressing the gathering Prafulla Kumar Das. the chairman of the Barunei Development Committee , stated that several companies like Arcelor Mittal , the largest steel maker of the world , and Adani group are interested to build a port in the district at Barunei .But it seems the state government is not taking any interest to sign MoU for constructing port at Barunei as the state government is delaying to sign MoU with a company to set up a port at Barunei.
The agitators informed that more than ten thousand acres of government lands are laying unused near Barunei river mouth and the government is not going to face any resistance from the locals as major issue like displacement is not going to be occur in the area . Large numbers villagers are supporting the recent move of some of the companies to build a port at Barunei river mouth . The proposed port at Barunei will provide livelihoods to thousands of people and the state government should hand over lands to any company for the construction of the port as soon as possible..
Notably ,in the past , Baunei river mouth was a minor port and the sailors of Orissa used to sail other countries through the port. A delegation team of Barunei Development Committee six months back met the Chief Minister Naveen Patanaik and pressed their demands before the CM to expedite the government machineries by signing an MoU with any big company to set up a port at Barunei river mouth, said Bhabani Shankar Nayak the vice-president of Barunei Development Committee.
With the establishment of port ,large numbers of youths of the district would get employment and unemployment problems would be curtailed in some extent from the district if port would set up at Barunei .
Later , the agitators withdrew their hunger strike after the district administration informed the agitators to press their demands before the state government.
