Forty-five families who vacated their homes in Ayyankuzhi near Ambalamugal, Ernakulam district, following a fire at the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited–Kochi Refinery (BPCL-KR) campus in their neighbourhood nearly a year ago, are preparing to revive their protest. The Ayyankuzhi Janakeeya Samithi, a collective of affected families, accuse the oil major of failing to honour its commitment to pay four months’ rent, a promise made at a meeting chaired by the Deputy Collector (disaster management) last month.
At a meeting held on June 30, BPCL-KR stated that approval for the proposal was still awaited from its Mumbai headquarters. The company was asked to provide updates by July 2. The Ayyankuzhi Janakeeya Samithi on Monday evening announced a protest against BPCL-KR’s alleged indifference in implementing the directive, followed by another demonstration on July 8 to mark the first anniversary of the fire. The families were evacuated after a section of 220kV electric cables running through the BPCL-KR campus caught fire on July 8, 2025.
No obligation
BPCL-KR sources maintained that the company had no obligation to pay rent to the displaced families. They said the proposal had been forwarded to the higher authorities in Mumbai as a sponsorship scheme to aid around 60 impoverished families in the wider Puthencruz panchayat, rather than as rent, since the company could not extend assistance under that head.
However, Saji Kumar, an office-bearer of the Ayyankuzhi Janakeeya Samithi, countered that BPCL-KR had already paid rent for five months at the rate of ₹10,000 per family, and four months’ rent remained pending. “We had to move out because of a fire in the BPCL-KR campus, and therefore it is the company’s responsibility to compensate us until our rehabilitation,” he said.
Company sources further claimed that a one-time settlement of ₹50,000 had been paid to the affected families at the instance of the district administration and not as rent. The families who were sandwiched on a 9.4-acre strip between two major public sector units – Hindustan Organic Chemicals Limited (HOCL) and BPCL-KR—had already been protesting, demanding acquisition of their land after the Kerala State Pollution Control Board certified the area as a ‘red zone’ unfit for habitation when the accident occurred. HOCL has also been asked to pay ₹2.25 lakh for three months towards the educational expenses of the affected families
Initially, the families were shifted to a lodge in Chottanikkara and later to rented houses after they refused to return to their homes. Subsequently, the government decided to directly purchase the land for establishing a solid waste treatment facility under the Kerala Solid Waste Management Project (KSWMP), aided by the World Bank. The direct purchase method was chosen to avoid delays and cost overruns in project completion and to minimise litigation over compensation by conducting negotiations with the affected families.
Published – July 06, 2026 04:06 pm IST
