The Odisha government has ordered an enquiry into allegations of Utkal Alumina International (UAIL) encroaching a piece of land belonging to Department of Water Resources (DoWR) at its facility in Kashipur block of Rayagada district.
"It has come to the notice of the government that Utkal Alumina International Ltd has illegally occupied 22.49 acre of DoWR land. Hence, it has been decided that Chief Engineer and Basin Manager, Berhampur will enquire into the matter and will submit the report to DoWR within 15 days," said S K Pattanayak, special secretary, DoWR in the order issued last week.
The government issued the order after it was detected that UAIL, a subsidiary of Aditya Birla Group owned Hindalco, had constructed boundary wall within the command area of a canal meant for irrigation purposes.
In the order, it has been specified that probe will be conducted to find out whether the company had taken necessary permission to build the wall along with other permissions such as drawal of water from the nearby water source. Utkal Alumina Refinery project in Rayagada district comprises of a 1.5 million tonne per annum (MTPA) alumina refinery, a bauxite mine (Baphlimali) with reserves estimated to last for over 25 years and a captive co-generation power plant having 90 Mw generation capacity.
There have been several other allegations against the company too. Earlier this year, state unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said, the company flouted environmental and mining laws and provided wrong information about complying with the rules after sending a fact finding team to the area.
"The company did not take adequate measures to check pollution as UAIL has no facilities for treatment and disposal of mining discharge water and dust extraction system. Besides, the mining activity was creating hindrances to access a holy hill of the tribals living in the area, violating special conditions", the fact finding report prepared by the visiting team.
The company, however, has rejected the claims of BJP saying it has followed all the rules laid down by the government.
