The social and green activists on Tuesday, hailed the Central panel's recommendation of not allowing the Vedanta Alumina Limited (VAL), a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Limited, to mine bauxite in Orissa’s Niyamgiri hills until and unless the local tribal communities give their consent to it.
“The panel's recommendation if implemented, will protect the interests of the two primitive tribal groups-Kutia Kandh and Dongaria Kondh, who have been fighting for their rights since the Anil Agrawal promoted company established the refinery at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district”, said social activists.
Hailing the Saxena committee's recommendations, the president of Lok Shakti Abhiyan (Orissa), Prafulla Samantara and noted environmental activist Biswajit Mohanty demanded that the officials who are involved in violation of laws to favour the company should be punished. The four-member Saxena committee said that allowing VAL to mine bauxite in the proposed area by depriving the two primitive tribal groups would shake the faith of tribal people in the laws of land.
The fate of the one million tonne per annum (mtpa) refinery project which has now been expanded to six mtpa, hangs in the balance since the local tribals are not in favour of giving their consent for mining in the area.
“We will not allow the company to mine bauxite in the area as it will deprive around 8000 tribal people of their livelihoods”, said one of the activists of Green Kalahandi, while hailing the panel's recommendation. Although the firm has already started its operations by bringing the raw materials from its mine at Bodai-Daldali in Chhattisgarh, it however needed to mine bauxite at Niyamgiri for cost effectiveness. The refinery originally required about three million tonnes of bauxite every year but following the expansion plan, the bauxite requirement has gone up to 18 mtpa.
The green activists demanded the government should take stringent action against its officials who were involved to violate the laws to favour a private company.
