Tribal people at a village in Kalahandi district to decide on the proposal for bauxite mining in Niyamgiri hills. (PTI)

Bhubaneswar, July 29: The fate of the controversial Niyamgiri bauxite mining project seems almost sealed with the seventh gram sabha at Phuldumer in Kalahandi also rejecting it today.

The latest rejection, however, came amid allegations that the Congress MP from Kalahandi, Bhakta Charan Das, has been trying to influence the outcome of these meetings crucial to the fate of Vedanta group’s one-million-tonne bauxite-starved refinery at Lanjigarh in the foothills of Niyamgiri.

Lashing out at Das, a former Union minister and senior BJD leader Balabhdra Majhi said the MP, who floated an organisation called the Green Kalahandi to oppose the mining project, was trying to influence the gram sabhas in various ways. Majhi, the tribal face of the BJD in Kalahandi, alleged that Das was even present at one of the gram sabha meetings. The MP, however, refuted the allegations, saying he did not expect this from a tribal leader of the area.

Sources said all the 49 villagers, who took part in today’s gram sabha organised amid tight security, spoke against mining while reiterating their resolve to protect the flora and fauna of the Niyamgiri hills, which has been home to their generations. It is also the seat of their presiding deity, Niyam Raja.

The state government has decided to organise 12 gram sabhas, a move, which the Union ministry of tribal affairs sees as a violation of the April 18 Supreme Court order on the issue. The ministry, which has constituted a team to visit the area next month, maintains that nowhere in the verdict it is mentioned about limiting the meetings to just 12 villages.

The Union ministry is in favour of gram sabhas being held at all the villages of Niyamgiri to be truly representative of the opinion of local tribal people on the issue. It recently wrote to the chief secretary, informing him about the constitution of a five-member team to examine evidence about claims under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) having been received from villages other than those chosen by the state government for holding the meetings.

The Vedanta group’s alumina refinery at Lanjigarh is facing a raw material shortage. It is being run at 60 per cent of its capacity with bauxite imported from other states.

Sources said the state government was considering the possibility of making bauxite available to the refinery, which opened recently after remaining closed for seven months, from other alternative mines.