Transfer of oil depot:Orissa Govt's gift to Berhampur

SOSA & City residents protest against the decision
Berhampur: Intellectuals, senior citizens, transporters, filing station owners and residents of the city resented the conspiracy to transfer the Indian Oil Corporation’s oil depot from Berhampur to Jatni. They have decided to burn the effigies of the local leaders and elected representatives, who remain silent against the injustice meted out to the people of South Orissa.
The oil depot established at the Berhampur railway station in 1964 through its 32 retail depots has been fulfilling the requirements of southern districts including far away Maoist-infested districts like Malkangiri, Rayagada and Nayagrah. Oil is being brought here from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and thousands of people including transporters; truck drivers, labourers and filling station employees depend on this depot for their livelihood.
Now, the authorities have decided to transfer the depot to Jatni and have already stopped supplying oil to the depot. Transfer of the depot to Jatni will increase the price of petrol and diesel to at least 50 paise per litre towards the transportation charges as the filling stations will have to pay an extra transport charge of more than Rs 8 lakh daily. Besides, thousands of people will lose their livelihood. It will also adversely affect the supply of oil to the far away districts particularly the Maoist infested ones. The transfer might affect the industrialization process in view of the presence of the Indian Rare Earths Limited near Chhatrapur, the Gopalpur port, proposed Gopalpur steel plant, titanium plant and other industrial units in the region.
The people from all sections have already started demonstrating against the unjustified move. They have congregated to launch a widespread movement against the leaders and elected representatives, who do not bother to raise their voice against the conspiracy.
At a meeting in which it was decided to burn the effigies of these leaders, Prof Prahallad Panda said that the region, particularly Ganjam district, had played a pioneering role in the formation of the separate Orissa province. Besides, the first three successive Chief Ministers and as many as seven Chief Ministers till date are from this southern region. Yet, none had cared for the development of this region, alleged Prof Panda, adding that even legendary Chief Minister Biju Patnaik had done nothing for this region and now his son Naveen Patnaik has shifted all corporations, institutions, organizations and plants from this region, including the proposed steel plant at Gopalpur to Kalinga Nagar. He further added that the transfer of oil depot from Berhampur to Jatni is the first gift of Naveen Patnaik Government to the people of Berhampur.
Meanwhile the Delhi based South Orissa Student Association (SOSA) in its recently held meeting on May 17 in New Delhi, also decided to protest the move of the state government to shift the oil depot from Berhampur to Jatni and in a letter addressed to the Chief Minister the organization has demanded to revoke the decision immediately and requested to establish the depot near Jagannathpur in the outskirts of the city for the benefit of thousands of poor people of South Orissa.