Bhubaneswar, June 9: The Centre has questioned the Odisha government’s decision to hold gram sabhas (village-level meetings) only in 12 villages in the proposed mining belt of the Niyamgiri hills to elicit their opinion on mining rights.

In a letter to the state’s chief secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik, Union tribal affairs secretary Vibha Puri Das pointed out that the Supreme Court in its April 18 judgment had not said that the gram sabhas would be confined to only 12 villages.

According to the apex court order, the gram sabhas will take a final call on the proposed bauxite mining in the Niyamgiri hills. No mining activities can take place if the gram sabhas do not agree to the proposed mining. Niyamgiri hills have deposits of bauxite and the Vedanta’s alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district needed the ores. The plant has been closed since December because of shortage of raw materials.

The Union secretary said: “The Supreme Court has not alluded to or limited the application of the Forest Rights Act in the project areas to any specific number of villages under any paragraph of the judgment. Therefore, any interpretation to the contrary would simply be an incorrect interpretation,” said Das.

Das said that the ministry was in receipt of copies of several claims under the Forest Rights Act for various rights including religious and cultural rights claimed over Niyamgiri forests and sacred areas from villages over and above the 12 villages selected by the state government.

“It further shows that Niyamgiri forests are shared by not just 12 villages, while a number of other villages in Kalahandi and Rayagada too share religious and cultural rights over Niyamgiri,” said Das.

The Centre also made it clear that limiting the convening of the gram sabha only in 12 villages is not in accordance with the Supreme Court order.

The ministry’s letter made it clear that the list of villages where the rights of forest dwellers are guaranteed under the Forest Rights Act or where cultural and religious rights are likely to be affected cannot be arbitrarily decided by the state government.

“It is to be decided by the people — the palli sabha — where claims would be filed through a transparent manner so that no genuine gram sabha who had a legitimate claim is left out of the process,” it said.

Odisha ST and SC development minister Lalbihari Himirika said: “Earlier, we decided to conduct gram sabhas in 12 villages — five in Kalahandi and seven in Rayagada. If the Centre asked us to conduct gram sabhas in more villages, we will certainly examine it.”