Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Gandhamardhan - The new trouble spot

Amidst speculation of a possible alternative to Niyamgiri, Gandhamardhan hill may once again become the soft target for Vedanta. Ajit Nayak reports on the possibility of history repeating itself

Just two days after Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF)’s refusal to give forest clearance of Niyamgiri mining project of Vedanta, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Lanjigarh (August 26, 2010) was a clear indication of the ‘cautious’ approach adopted by the Centre as against the blind-industrial policy of the state government. It has also exposed the proclivity of the Naveen Patnaik’s BJD government towards the Vedanta group as ruling BJD organised a ‘protest rally’ at the same site to criticise the visit of Rahul Gandhi to Lanjigarh. Though senior BJD leader Pyari Mohan Mahaptra claimed Rahul’s visit was politically motivated and was a part of anti-Orissa strategy of the Centre. Meanwhile, the state government has been left with no other option, but to bail out ‘Vedanta’ by finding a substitute location which can cater to the bauxite requirement of Vedanta.

Vedanta has its aluminum refinery plant at Lanjigarh, which operates with bauxite from Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh since August 2008-09. Had centre cleared Vedanta’s mining proposal of Niyamgiri Hills, it would have helped the company expand its production capacity from 1 million tonnes to 6 million tonnes. Now, when the company is putting pressure on the state government to provide alternative bauxite arrangement for its Lanjigarh refinery, environmentalists have started demanding the ‘closure of the refinery’ which according to them is adversely affecting Niyamgiri’s ecology. “After the refusal of forest clearance on the Niyamgiri, government should ask the company to shift the refinery plant from the place as it will put a negative effect on the surrounding of the Niyamgiri hills. Why is the state government so inclined towards Vedanta? “I don’t know but in any case we will not allow the government to set up industries at the cost of the environment of the state”, eminent environmentalist and social activist Prafulla Samantara said. He adds that it is not only the question of Niyamgiri or Gandhamardhan, it is also the question of Panchamali (Kasipur), Bafilimali and Kodingamali (Koraput) which are the prime sources of water for the tribal people living around the hills. “Several water sources that are coming from these places will be dried out in case of mining in these areas. So we warned the government to refrain from uprooting the innocent people from their living”, Samantara said.

But the company wants to put pressure on the state government to provide alternative arrangement of mines to cater to the requirement of bauxite. The company officials argue that it is the duty of the state government to provide bauxite to the company as per MoU signed between the company and government. The MoU has a binding on the state government to provide 150 million tonnes of the mineral to the Lanjigarh refinery plant. “We have appealed to the state government for alternative arrangement of bauxite mines closer to the plant. The company will have no problem in case it is allotted within 30-40 km radius of the plant,” a senior officer of the Vedanta Refinery said. However Gandhamardhan hills in Bolangir/Bargarh district is the most preferred location.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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