Bhubaneswar, July 22: For the second time in less than a week, the Dongria Kondh tribal community inhabiting the Niyamgiri hills today gave a thumbs down to bauxite mining in their area.
Expressing their views freely at the gram sabha organised at Kesarpadi village in Muniguda block of Rayagada district, they made it clear that they cherished the flora and fauna of the hills much more than the Odisha government valued the bauxite deposits lying there.
The bauxite deposits are crucial to the survival of Vedanta Alumina Limited’s (VAL) one million tonne refinery at Lanjigarh at the foothills of Niyamgiri. The company’s chief operating officer (COO) Mukesh Kumar met chief secretary Jugal Kishore Mohapatra at the state secretariat here today to discuss the raw material shortage plaguing the refinery that is currently running at 60 per cent of its capacity.
The gram sabha, the second in a string of 12, was held to decide the fate of the controversial Niyamgiri bauxite mining project in tune with a Supreme Court judgment of April 18. The matter had gone to the apex court after the Union ministry of environment and forests rejected stage II forest clearance to the project in 2010.
The first gram sabha organised at Serkapadi village on July 18 had also rejected the mining proposal. The proceedings at Kesarpadi began at 11am today with 33 of the 36 tribal voters turning up for the deliberations despite a persistent drizzle.
They overwhelmingly expressed themselves against mining and asserted that they would not leave the hills under any circumstances.
“We are not going to go anywhere from here,” said Kutuka Suku, one of the villagers, mirroring the sentiments of the majority. Sources said as many as 19 individual claims and one community claim had been filed in the village but all that was overshadowed by the tribe’s show of unity in rejecting the mining proposal.
Security was tight for the gram sabha with four platoons of police surrounding the village. Rayagada district judge Sarat Chandra Mishra attended the proceedings as an observer.
While five more such meetings will be held in the district to elicit the opinion of the local tribal community on the mining issue, an equal number of gram sabhas would be organised in neighbouring Kalahandi.
Emerging from his meeting with the chief secretary here, VAL boss Kumar expressed hope that the raw material problem of his company’s refinery would be resolved soon.
Kumar appeared to put his faith in the inter-ministerial group that recently submitted its recommendations to the state government on providing mineral linkages to industries.
“Odisha has so much of bauxite,” said the VAL top gun apparently hoping that the bauxite crisis in the company’s refinery would come to an end soon.
Sources said the issue of water cess exemption for the unit was also discussed at the meeting.
