Vedanta land losers urge CM to arrange bauxite for refinery

Company announcing its plans to shut its one million tonne refinery has shocked locals

A delegation of land losers from Lanjigarh, the site of Vedanta's alumina refinery, today called on chief minister Naveen Patnaik, urging him to arrange bauxite for the starving unit.

Vedanta announcing its plans to shut its one million tonne refinery has shocked local people who are directly or indirectly dependent on the plant for their livelihoods. The closure of the refinery is set to impact around 10,000 people.

The delegation submitted a memorandum to the chief minister, requesting him to prevail upon the company management not to go for the plant closure. Instead, bauxite mines need to be allocated to the company so that production continues.

"We are feeling quite tense on hearing the news of closure of Vedanta refinery. Some of us are in deep financial crisis and are even thinking of ending our lives. Land losers have notclue what to do in the event of plant closure. We request you to kindly intervene in the matter and save our livelihoods", the memorandum stated.

"The establishment of the refinery has helped thousands of villagers to get jobs. The plant closure would trigger exodus of people from Lanjigarh to other states where they will be forced to take up the jobs of bonded labourers", it added.

Balabhadra Majhi, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP from Nabarangpur said, "More than 1700 people have lost lands for the Vedanta refinery project. We have asked the state government to initiate talks with the top company executives and ensure that the plant runs smoothly."

Last Tuesday, Vedanta said it had initiated process to shut its Lanjigarh refinery, a move that would impact 10,000 people directly dependent on the plant. Vedanta that had invested Rs 4500 crore on the refinery, was bleeding loss of Rs three crore every day as running the plant on externally sourced bauxite turned out to be economically unviable.