Baghjan tense over rehabilitation package; affected people demands settlement

OUR CORRESPONDENT

TINSUKIA: The situation in Baghjan was tense on Tuesday after hundreds of relief camp inmates threatened to self-immolate in the oil well inferno over the rehabilitation issue as the tripartite discussion held at the DC's office on Monday had failed to resolve the impasse.

The inmates even broke two strong barricades close to the blast site. After police stopped the agitators from approaching the burning well, they squatted on the road. While the police tried to pacify the violent crowd, the Deputy Commissioner and other senior officials reached Baghjan and were holding discussion with the protesters till the filing of this report.

The inmates demanding that OIL must release the rehabilitation package before the fire was capped. The protesters felt that once the fire was doused, OIL would flee from the locality without paying the actual compensation even as 635 affected families were given an immediate ex-gratia of Rs 30,000 each.

While the process of damage assessment has been continuing since the past several weeks, the exercises carried out by the district administration have encountered several problems due to exaggeration of the claimants, said an official source, adding that the figures provided by the affected families did not corroborate with the official and departmental data.

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