Orissa High Court notice to TTPS on plant closure

CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Tuesday issued notice to Talcher Thermal Power Station (TTPS) on a PIL seeking its intervention for rehabilitation of contractual employees set to lose livelihood due to closure of the power plant.

Gadadhar Samal and two other residents of Talcher had filed the PIL in which they stated that the closure of the power plant will create ‘serious financial and social emergency in the locality as thousands of people directly and indirectly depend on it.’ Besides, a large number of contractual labourers and their families will be pushed towards starvation in the absence of  income due to closure of TTPS, the PIL added.

While issuing notice to TTPS, the division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice BP Routray fixed April 15 as the next date of hearing. By then, the Court expects TTPS to come up with a proposal for rehabilitation of the contractual  workers. 

The lifespan of TTPS, a unit of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), expires on March 31 as per the guidelines of Central Electrical Regulatory Commission (CERC). All six units of the 460 MW plant were closed on March 23. The authorities have completed preparations for the closure and even reportedly served notices to all the contractual employees numbering around 2,000.