In a major blow to the Orissa government plan to mine bauxite from Niyamgiri hill in Kalahandi district, the 12th and final Gram Sabha held on Monday at Jarapa village rejected the proposal.
Of 16 members of the Jarapa village, 12 persons including six women and six men from eight families, took part in the proceedings. The Orissa government has formed a joint-venture with the Sterlite Industries for bauxite mining on Niyamgiri to feed Vedanta Aluminium Limited’s one-million-tonne per annum capacity refinery project at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district.
However, the rejection of the mining proposal by the local residents in all the 12 Gram Sabha meetings held in the past one month has put a spanner on the state government’s efforts to ensure raw material linkage to the company.
After shutting down the plant for several months, the VAL had recently reopened the refinery unit in the face of strong demand by the residents of the surrounding villages.
“The 12th and final Gram Sabha or village level meeting held at Jarapa village in Muniguda block unanimously rejected the proposal,” Gorachand Sabar, the nodal officer appointed for the meeting, said.
All the 12 participants said ‘no’ to bauxite mining on the hills, Mr Sabar added.
The participants were of the view that mining would severely affect their socio-cultural and religious rights over Niyamgiri area as they considered the hills as their presiding deity.
Rayagada district judge Sarat Chandra Mishra attended the meeting as observer.
The state government held Gram Sabhas in 12 villages of Niyamgiri according to the April 18 order of the Supreme Court which gave residents in Rayagada and Kalahandi districts the right to decide whether they supported bauxite mining on Niyamgiri hills.
Of the 12 gram sabhas, five were held in Kalahandi district and seven in Rayagada in villages inhabited by the Dangaria, Jharania and Kutia Kandha tribes