the general manager, deputy general manager and chief executive of Indian Oil Corporation ( ioc ) have been served notices by seven farmers of Mota Thavaria village near Jamnagar in Gujarat. They are demanding a payment of Rs 7.25 crore as compensation for damage to their farmland caused by leakage in an ioc pipeline.

The farmers are Chhaganbhai Naranbhai, Dhanjibhai Nathabhai, Damjibhai, Virjibhai, Jinabhai and Vallabhbhai. They have alleged that they could not cultivate the rabi and kharif crop on around 135 hectares of the agricultural land because the leakage had rendered the land useless.

It has been claimed in the notices that the livelihood of 35 families have been jeopardised because of the leak in the pipeline, which is part of the Salaya-Mathura pipeline project. The farmers have demanded that at least half the amount should be paid within a month.