Paradip: The standoff between IOCL and consortium of three regional truck owners’ association over controversy surrounding transportation of petroleum coke (petcoke) from the refinery plant has intensified with the administration deploying four platoons of police on the plant site to prevent any untoward incidents.
Hundreds of members of three Paradip Truck Owners’ Association, Jagannath Truck Owners’ Association and Jagatsinghpur Truck Owners’ Association have been continuing their protests near the oil refinery at Rangiagada since last week and have detained as many as six hywas which were carrying petcoke.
In January earlier this year a similar protest led IOCL to hold discussions with the truck associations and had promised them to allow for the transportation of petcoke, a solid carbon by-product of the oil refining process.
The plant authorities have yet again engaged a stevedoring agency and a tipper owner association to transport the petcoke by means of hywas, a move which was like killing the source of livelihood of nearly 2000 truck owners.
“For exporting petcoke used for manufacturing of prism cement in states like Madhya Pradesh, we do not have coastal movement here so it can also be transported by means of roadways and besides truck owners will also be benefited if the raw materials will be transported through trucks. Earlier we had apprised the administration on the issue and they had promised to look into it but now we see that they have fallen back from their promise,” Biranchi Parida, Paradip Truck Onwers’ Association Secretary told reporters.
“For the last two months we have been shown blatant indifference. Our pleas have been turned down as if the administration has decided to kick us and in spite of our protests, dumpers, hywas continue to carry petcoke from the plant. We have decided to observe protests 24x7 for an indefinite period,” Sailendra Jena, Jagannath Truck Owners’ Association President said.