Parties Across Party Lines Warn Outside Instigators to Keep out of Kashipur
Dr.Badal Tah,Odishabarta
Parties across party lines warn outside instigators to keep out of Kashipur in the context of mining: appeal district administration to debar entry of anti-mining persons responsible for Mikanch killings
Rayagada, September 16: Rayagada district, especially Kashipur, K Singhpur & Muniguda blocks, has the highest reserves of Bauxite ores. Utkal Alumina International Limited(UAIL), a subsidiary of Birla Company has established its aluminium refinery plant in Kashipur, Rayagada. Rich reserves are yet to be explored in K Singhpur & Muniguda blocks of Niyamagiri range because of supreme court order to stall mining activities in Niyamagiri hills. Though Vedanta Company has established an aluminium refinery plant in Lanjigarh, Kalahandi, it could not access ore from its adjacent green field mining areas of Niyamagiri hills. Later OMC supplied ores to Vedanta’s refinery plant from Kodingamali mines situated in Koraput district. Now that Vedanta has got Sijimali mines in Kashipur block of Rayagada and Thuamul Rampur block of Kalahandi from Govt through an e-auction process, resistance has cropped up in the area. To counter the rumours and misinformation spread by outsiders, the prominent political parties alongwith their party leaders and PRI members have met the press in Kashipur itself.
“We want all round development of Kashipur, which has witnessed several development processes after Utkal Alumina is its full swing of a productive process. Earlier, outsiders like Prafulla Samantara came to Kashipur, befooled and instigated the innocent tribals for his vested interest. He stalled the development process for sometime, but at last people realised and rejected him. He and his tainted team were instrumental in instilling a violence in Maikanch where three of or innocent tribal brothers got killed. We will not allow Prafulla Samantara to perpetrate that kind of instigation and violence again. We welcome Vedanta, maître and OMC to initiate industrial activities as soon as possible in a consultative manner”, said Sri Jagadish Patra, who belongs to Kashipur and is the State Secretary of Biju Janata Dal.
Durga Prasad Panda, Sate General Secretary, Congress Party fumes over the nefarious activities of Prafulla Samantara & Narendra Mohanty during a press conference in Kashipur. He had a plethora of questions like source of income of Samantara to lead these anti-development activities. Why only is Samantara interested in Kashipur & why not Keonjhar, Sudargarh and Jharsuguda where there is intense mining activities ? Amidst a number of PRI members and Ex-PRI members & party leaders namely Angad Nayak, Block Cogress President, Smt Ujjal Dei Majhi, Ex-Block Chairman, Aslam Khan, Youth Cnogress District President,Apalaswamy Kadraka, potential Rayagada MLA candidate, Anil Jain, Partha Bardhan, Panda questioned the ill intention of Samantara, who did not care to come to the area after Maikanch firing and talk about the development deficit they are facing. Panda has appealed the district administration to initiate action against Samantara & Mohanty and debar their entry to the area to instil rue of law.
Sri Basanta Ulaka, BJP leader and potential MLA candidate expressed a similar view. “Are we so illiterate and unaware that people like Samantara have to come and make us aware ? He is playing with innocence of our people. He enjoys lavishly at our cost. The outsiders like Samantara must understand that we, tribals & dalits, are competent to deal with our own problems and issues. We don’t need third parties for mediation”, lamented Ulaka. He was complemented by Siba Pattanaik, District BJP President and Kishore Panda, District BJP Secretary.
In the meantime, State Pollution Control Board(SPCB), Bhubaneswar has issued a notice for a public hearing in Banteji, Kashipur on 16th October, 2023 as a statutory requirement for mining lease to Vedanta.
