While the Orissa government deserves kudos for peaceful conduct of the first gram sabha on July 18 at Serkapadi village under Muniguda block in Rayagada for ascertaining the wishes of the Dongaria Kondhs for mining in Niyamgiri, a fresh wave of controversy has enveloped the process, raising grave doubts about its fairness.
Many suspect that the Dongaria Kondhs are being influenced by foreign-aided non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and some “questionable” elements to speak against mining in the region. The suspicion draws credence from the fact that while only 36 tribals were present at the meeting, over two hundred NGO activists, were seen around the venue.
Besides, the open admission by Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti (NSS) chief Bhalachandra Sarangi that the organisation has run a mock gram sabha for the second meeting to be held on Monday at Kesarpadi also creates room for suspicion that the Kondhs who attended the first meeting might have been influenced.
The activists had virtually laid siege to the gram sabha venue and were seen surrounding the shamiana.
“The villagers appeared frightened to talk to journalists. It seemed that they were tutored to convey just one message and that was they consider the entire mountain range as sacred. To the specific question of how mining would affect Hundaljali, their sacred hill top 10 km away as recognised by the Supreme Court, all the eleven speakers simply said that they consider the entire hill range as sacred although they worship in their own village,” Sridhar Pesnia, the president of Lanjigarh Vikash Parishad, said.
Officials of Vedanta Aluminium Limited and the state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation were conspicuous by their absence. VAL and OMC have entered into a joint-venture for bauxite mining in the region.
The VAL, which has set up an alumina refinery at Lanjigarh on the foothill of Niyamgiri after being promised to get bauxite supply locally, finds it hard to run the unit due to lack of the raw material. Another development that took place a day after the first gram sabha was held appears to have some seeming links on the outcome of the meeting.
Three Maoists, two of whom are yet to be identified but believed to be Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh cadres, were gunned down in the nearby Narayanpatna forests. Sources said they had come to train cadres of the newly formed Kashipur-Niyamgiri division. It had even temporarily closed down the plant for over six months before reopening this month.
What steps the state government is taking in the remaining 11 palli sabha meetings remains to be watched.
Meanwhile, Congress MLAs belonging recently met governor S.C. Jamir and demanded that gram sabhas should be done in more than a hundred villages and not just those villages adjoining the proposed mining site, adding more confusion to the entire process.
At a time when Arcelor Mittal has announced its pullout from Orissa and progress of Posco remains slow, the clock seems to be ticking for Anil Agrawal-led Vedanta Aluminium, whose search for raw material security seems to be illusionary.