Villages reject Vedanta's plan to mine Niyamgiri hills

NEW DELHI: Vedanta is unlikely to get clearance to mine Niyamgiri hills to feed its alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Odisha. With a majority of the selected villages rejecting the state's proposal to allow bauxite mining in the area, the Union environment ministry is likely to stick to its guns and hold back the mandatory clearance.

Though the ministry's official position will be disclosed only in the Supreme Court in due course, closed-door discussions over the developments in Odisha indicates that it may be a lost battle for Vedanta and the state government.

Government sources said the ministry will not go against the wishes of people, keeping in view its earlier stand when it insisted that rejection from even one of the 12 'selected' villages would be enough to maintain status quo. As it stands, eight villages have already rejected the proposal with the rest likely to go the same way.

"Such an outright rejection from majority of gram sabhas will only vindicate the ministry's stand," said an official source.

The ministry had cancelled the mandatory stage-II forest clearance granted to Vedanta's bauxite project in August 2010.

After setting up a one million tonne per annum alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district, Vedanta had entered into an agreement with the Odisha government for supply of bauxite through the state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation. This move was, however, challenged by anti-displacement groups and the company could never operate its plant at full capacity due to shortage of bauxite.

The Supreme Court had in April asked the Odisha government to go to gram sabhas to look into religious and cultural aspects of the (Dongaria Kondh) tribals in the region and take a decision in three months.

Independent observers of the state government will write to the environment ministry once all 12 gram sabhas come out with their views. The ministry will then have to submit its report to the Supreme Court within three months.

The matter is expected to figure in Vedanta's annual general meeting in London on Thursday. The company did not respond to TOI's questions relating to these developments till late on Wednesday evening.

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