Vedanta issue: Orissa claims discrimination
The Orissa state government is upset that it has not been invited to participate in the crucial Forest Advisory Committee meeting scheduled to be held in New Delhi on Friday in order to explain its position on Vedanta Aluminium’s controversial Niyamgiri mining project.
A senior official of the MoEF pointed out that it was not mandatory to invite representatives from the state government, since they had been provided an opportunity to place their point of view before the N.C. Saxena committee when it had visited Orissa.
Responding to this allegation, Dr Saxena explained, “I sent ten e-mails to the state government asking for their comments, but received no answer. When the principal secretary, forests of the Orissa government was contacted, he was equally evasive and neither said yes or no to any of our queries.”
Mr Saxena further elaborated that “Orissa’s chief secretary had issued an order in 2009 that forests would not be converted to non-forest zone without getting a feedback from the affected gram panchayats, but even this was not followed through”.
The state government shot off a letter to secretary of the MoEF on Thursday insisting that their point of view be heard before any final decision on the proposed Vedanta and Posco projects is taken.
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