Ayyankuzhi row: oil company threatens to pull out of bearing accommodation expenses of families

The imbroglio over the accommodation of 40-odd families from Ayyankuzhi in the neighbourhood of the BPCL-KR campus at Ambalamugal, in a lodge at Chottanikkara, seems headed towards a collision course, with the families reluctant to move back to their homes, while the company has threatened to pull out of bearing their accommodation expenses.

The families were shifted to the lodge by the district administration at the expense of BPCL-KR, following a stiff protest in the wake of a fire breakout in the Kerala State Electricity Board’s 220kV cables from the Brahmapuram substation, passing through an underground duct inside the BPCL-KR campus on July 8. Many people had to be hospitalised after they complained of nausea and dizziness that day.

Since then, the families had declined to return to their homes, citing multiple reports by the Pollution Control Board, including the latest after the recent fire incident, notifying the area as unfit for living. Instead, they have been insisting that their nearly 10 acres be acquired by BPCL-KR, while also threatening to stage a protest if any attempt was made to forcefully shift them back to their homes before their demand was met.

“We are set to raise the issue at a sitting of the State Human Rights Commission to be held in the city tomorrow [Tuesday]. Last week, BPCL had threatened to pull out of bearing the expenses of our present accommodation,” said Saji Kumar, convener of Ayyankuzhi Janakeeya Samithi.

BPCL-KR, on its part, clarified that it could not continue bearing the accommodation expense of nearly ₹1 lakh a day indefinitely, and that it would pull out of the commitment by writing to the district administration shortly. “We owned up the obligation as a humanitarian consideration for a few days at best. But that is now being used as a bargaining tool to get their land acquired. We have no new project which warrants the acquisition of land at this point of time,” said BPCL-KR sources.

A Chief Secretary-level meeting organised shortly after the fire incident had urged BPCL-KR to proactively consider the demand of the residents to acquire their land, citing how public sector units had acquired acres in places like Ahmedabad and Jharkhand on grounds of pollution.

“There has been no progress in the matter since that meeting. The district administration can hardly intervene since it is for the government to take a decision on the demand for acquiring the land,” said sources in the district administration.