Supreme Court backs angry blow-out claims
Angry villagers who claim they have not received all their interim compensation for damages caused by Oil India's Baghjan blowout three years ago have won Supreme Court backing.
On July 14 (2023), chief justice Dhananjaya Chandrachud and Supreme Court judges PS Narasimha and Manoj Misra accepted a contempt petition filed by environmentalist Monoj Hazarika "and another" against Oil India chairman Ranjit Rath "and others." The order reads: "Permission to file the contempt petition is granted."
Hazarika's petition claims Oil India and the state administration did not follow the Supreme Court's January 23 (2023) order directing that interim compensation must be paid to the villagers within two months or by March 23 (2023). Oil India was meant to pay the compensation through the Tinsukia district administration, which was supposed to make the payments to villagers.
Still unclear is how much has been paid so far. However, an order from the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on March 10 (2023) said Oil India had reported paying Rs11.2cr ($1.4m) of the total Rs68cr ($8.3m) owed in interim compensation.
Pulling no punches, the July 14 (2023) Supreme Court order adds: "The petitioner's grievance arises from an NGT order on July 24 (2020) for the payment of interim compensation; since the grievance is that the interim compensation has still not been disbursed, we grant liberty to the petitioners to move a miscellaneous application before the NGT to espouse their relief; we request the NGT to take up the miscellaneous application expeditiously to ensure that due compliance of the order for the disbursement of interim compensation is effected, if not already done." A source explains that petitioner Hazarika from Baghjan village will likely file an application shortly with the NGT, entrusted to decide compensation, when Kolkata-based environmental activist Bonani Kakkar first filed the blowout case.
Over three years have passed since the May 27 (2020) blowout at Oil India's BGN-5 well devastated large tracts of land inside the 75-sq km Baghjan PML.