Bhubaneswar, Dec. 31: As 2010 slips into history, Oriyas would remember it as the year of controversies with environmental issues impacting the state’s politics in a big way for the first time.

The roller coaster ride of events during the year also saw the state scaling new heights in the field of sports while the passing away of stalwarts like Bhikari Bal and Guru Gangadhar Pradhan left a huge void in the world of art and culture.

But almost throughout 2010, the focus was on politics with the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) locking horns with the Centre after rattling blows by the Union ministry of environment and forests which nixed the Niyamgiri bauxite mining project while derailing the expansion plans of Vedanta Alumina Limited and bringing the Rs 52,000 crore Posco project to a grinding halt.

Though the MOEF scuttled these projects purely on environmental grounds, the state government saw behind the move a massive conspiracy by the Congress-led UPA to stall the growth of Orissa, which was attracting huge investments from global corporates. As if that was not enough, AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi addressed a gathering of Kondh tribals at Lanjigarh in the foothills of Niyamgiri in August following the union ministry’s rejection of the bauxite mining project.

The BJD, which has been showcasing investments worth over Rs 1 lakh crore in industries as its biggest achievement since coming to power in the state in 2000, retaliated with a string of anti-Centre rallies at Lanjigarh, Malkangiri and Jagatsinghpur. The party targeted both Rahul and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi accusing them of giving a step motherly treatment to Orissa and shedding crocodile tears for the state’s tribals.

The rally at Malkangiri sought to bring into focus the plight of district’s tribals facing inundation threat from the Polavaram multi-purpose project along the border in Andhra Pradesh.

The MOEF’s blow to the Posco and Vedanta projects had almost a crippling impact on the state’s industrialisation drive with all work coming to a halt at the South Korean company’s 12-million-tonne plant site in Jagatsinghpur district. The fate of the project, which has hardly made any progress in the five years since the signing of the memorandum of understanding with the government in 2005, still hangs in the balance with two MOEF-appointed committees alleging violation of forest and environment laws. However, the state government remains defiant asserting that no laws had been violated in the project area.

For Vedanta, it was a double whammy. While the company’s hopes of feeding its one-million tonne refinery with bauxite mined from Niyamgiri was dashed, the Centre also threw a spanner in its expansion plans. As the company scouts for alternative mines in the state, it seems to have seen a flicker of hope for the revival of Niyamgiri project in the state government’s move to approach the MOEF again.

There was no respite from scams for the government during 2010 with the Opposition mounting pressure on chief minister Naveen Patnaik to sack two of his cabinet colleagues, urban development minister Badri Narayan Patra and mass education minister Pratap Jena, for their alleged involvement in the multi-crore subsidised coal scandal. The ministers, in the past, had held the top positions in the Orissa Small Industries Corporation (OSIC), which regulates coal distribution along with the Orissa Cooperative Consumer Federation (OCCF).

The aftershocks of the Rs 10,000 crore mining scam continued to be felt through the year which saw the state vigilance department filing chargesheets against two prominent mine-owners but the Opposition, which had been demanding a CBI inquiry, was far from satisfied. The year end saw high drama with an important file relating to the scam disappearing from the secretariat under mysterious circumstances.

It was traced a fortnight later in the wake of a statewide furore and ruckus inside the Assembly by the Opposition.

Controversies dogged the chief minister right till the end of the year. Allegations of the national flag having been dishonoured flew thick and fast on December 26, the foundation day of BJD after Naveen was presented with a flag emblazoned with his party name and election symbol. The flag had been used to drape the body of Naveen’s father Biju Patnaik on his last journey.

Though former India hockey captain Dilip Tirkey decided to hang his stick leaving thousands of his fans disappointed, there was good news on the sports front for the state with weightlifter Ravi Kumar winning a gold and athlete Srabani Nanda bagging a bronze at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. The state also savoured the bronze winning feat of Pratima Puhan and Pramila Minz in the rowing event at the Asian Games in China.