The locals at Baghjan, Assam, affected by the May 27 gas well blowout and subsequent fire stepped up their protest by deciding to put spanner in Oil India Limit¬ed’s functioning in the area for an indefinite period in protest against the delay in meeting their demands for compensa¬tion and safety.

Though, the district ad¬ministration launched an as¬sessment drive to assess the losses suffered by the locals during the day, Baghjan Gaon Milan Jyoti Juba Sangha, which is representing the lo¬cals in talks with the adminis¬tration, said the decision to scale up the protest was taken because of the “slowness” with which the administration was approaching the issues confronting them.

“Today, six houses were assessed by the district admi¬nistration. It is too less. Then we saw people on boat remov¬ing pollutants in water bodies with jute bags. Why can’t proper equipment be used? Then neither the Oil India nor the government has respond¬ed to our demands. And so, we have decided to block Oil India’s activities in the greater Baghjan area,” Sangha presi¬dent Satyajit Moran said.

Hemanta Moran, Sangha adviser, echoing Satyajit, said they were staging peaceful protests at the relief camps seeking immediate resolution of their demands but given the delay and slowness in meeting their justified demands they were compelled to take this step. Today, too, the relief camp inmates staged a dharna from 9am to 1pm.

About 7,000 people have been affected in the blowout and the subsequent fire that broke out on June 7 leaving a trail of destruction, including death of two Oil India firefight¬ers, and affecting population living within 1.5km of the well. The affected are living in 10 re¬lief camps.

An Oil India statement is¬sued on Wednesday said that because of the agitation, there was production loss of 288MT of crude oil and 0.44MMSCM of natural gas on Tuesday.

“Cumulative production loss since May 27 due to bandhs and blockades: 6132 MT crude oil, 7.97 MMSCM of natural gas.”

According to an Oil official, the loss will be in the vicinity of Rs 15 crore, excluding the loss from the well, which caught fire at Baghjan, about 530km from Guwahati. “The decision will only add to Oil India’s growing losses.

The official said that as¬sessment was in the hands of the administration but they will compensate those who have been genuinely affected. “They are our main concern apart from restoring the local ecology,” the official said.

The Oil India in its state¬ment also said that as part of health awareness programme, anganwadi workers and helpers have organised exer¬cise and yoga sessions for the children in relief camps at Baghjan.

“A radio bulletin called Baghjan Barta has also been launched by All India Radio (AIR), Dibrugarh every day at 7.10pm and repeat broadcast next day at 7.30am to inform the stakeholders about the progress in capping the well at Baghjan and related activities at 7.10pm. The program can also be heard on various social media platforms of AIR, Di¬brugarh.” The programme was launched on June 13.

The Oil India said regular monitoring of air and water quality and noise level at the well site is being carried out.

“Preliminary assessment on vegetation impact survey on plants and tea garden was conducted by Assam Agricul¬tural University. They have been further requested to start postfire damage assessment study to assess the damage to the crops/tree/plants (pa¬ddy/tea/fruit/vegetation) in surrounding areas of Bagh¬jan,” an Oil India statement said.

Locals have complained a continued tremors and earsplitting sound within an area of 1.5km to 2km since the fire broke out last week, prompt¬ing the state Assam govern¬ment to monitor to be conduct¬ed by the Jorhatbased North East Institute of Science and Technology (NEIST) at Bagh¬jan.

The state government has also announced that it was for maximum compensation to the affected but the locals are not impressed, seeking a concrete assurance as the earliest.

Oil sources said that it may take “ up to July 10” to cap the well.