In Kashipur: Locals turn up in thousands, demand pragmatic mining and aluminium refinery
Dr.Badal Tah,Odishabarta
Rayagada, October 6: “The area will be a desert, all the water sources will dry, there will be catastrophic air & water pollution, loss of tribal culture in Schedule-V area, loss of livelihood, etc. We are against these myths propagated by the outside self acclaimed anti-mining activists & NGOs, who sit in AC rooms and chalk out plans and strategies to instigate local simple villagers. We have witnessed the mining areas & plants like NALCO, a Navaratna Aluminium Company, Utkal Alumina, OMC-Kodingamali, which are operating for more than a decade & more & the prosperity they have brought in. No dessertification or drying up of water sources in the region. Our poverty is their capital of the so called activists. We can not be befooled by these outsiders & will certainly not tolerate their anti-development mindset through instigative tactics”, said Saraswati Majhi, a prominent young local tribal woman leader & Chairperson, Zilla Parishad.
Around 25000 local inhabitants of Kashipur block of Rayagada district & Thuamul Rampur block of Kalahandi district took a rally from Hanuman Temple & Helipad, assembled in front of local Tehsil office & Police Station demanding bauxite mining in Sijimali & an refinery in Kashipur by VEDANTA and protesting unnecessary interference by outsiders.
The rallyists under the leadership of many PRI members including Sarpanches, Ex-sarapanches, Samiti Members, Ex-Samiti Members, LAMPS President opined that the outsiders neither stayed in our villages affected with water & other infrastructural deficit nor reached us when we faced Cholera epidemics or Covid pandemic or hunger deaths or migration outside for petty jobs. Just showing their face now to instil violence against mining among our local brothers & sisters reflect their ulterior motives. They can not just decide on behalf of us.
The villagers en masse went around the main road of Kashipur and submitted a memorandum to President of India through Additional Tehsildar & IIC, Kashipur. Through this memorandum they have requested her to start the mining as soon as possible and assured to extend their full support for the public hearings to be held on October 16 in Kashipur block & October 18 in Thuamul Rampur block.
Some of the leaders who joined the rally expressed their apprehension whether the refinery plant will be established by Vedanta in Kashipur though they wholeheartedly supported the mining in their area. Vedanta has proposed to extract 9 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of bauxite from Sijimali on a lease area of 1549.02 hectares via opencast mining. More than two-thirds of the lease area belongs to the state government.
“We have heard that several green technologies have evolved as far as mining & refinery are concerned. The importer country procures products of those companies that use the green technologies leading to least pollution. We are confident that a company of Vedanta repute will certainly use these technologies in pragmatic mining in Sijimali. We will applaud if Vedanta puts it’s refinery in Kashipur”, said Sri Jogesh Das, State Secretary, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh.
