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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Niyamgiri: First of 12-village vote rejects Vedanta mining -Debabrata Mohanty

Niyamgiri: First of 12-village vote rejects Vedanta mining -Debabrata Mohanty

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published Published on Jul 19, 2013   modified Modified on Jul 19, 2013
-The Indian Express


Serkapadi, Rayagada: Vedanta Aluminium's controversial plan to mine the Niyamgiri hills for bauxite received a major jolt Thursday after local tribal people unanimously rejected the proposal, claiming religious and cultural rights over the entire hills after 200 minutes of high drama and suspense.

In the first of the 12 pallisabhas or village meetings held in Serkapadi on the hills of Rayagada district, 36 registered voters of the village present at the meeting voted against Vedanta's proposal to mine the Niyamgiri hilltop.

On April 18, the Supreme Court had ordered that the Union environment ministry would take a final decision on the grant of stage II clearance for the bauxite mining project within two months of the decisions of the pallisabhas.

Following the SC order, the Orissa government had notified that pallisabhas would be held in 12 villages in Rayagada and Kalahandi districts between July 18 and August 19.

"Niyamgiri is our God, our parent. It means everything to us. We have been worshiping it for years...our forefathers too. If we are thrown out from Niyamgiri, we would die like fish without water. Does the government want us to die like insects," asked an emotional Govind Sikaka of Serkapadi, in Kui and Oriya language, echoing the emotions of the Niyamgiri tribal people present at the meeting.

"We can give our head, our blood, but not Niyamgiri. It has given us everything, fruit, water, air," said Rupu Jakesika, a woman of Serkapadi, who signed two resolutions - one rejecting the proposal to mine Niyamgiri and the second staking a community rights claim over the Niyamgiri mountain.

Tempers soared when Dongaria Kondh tribal men and women insisted that an earlier resolution prepared by the state tribal affairs department restricting their community rights under the Forests Rights Act be scrapped. The earlier resolution on community rights limited the rights of Serkapadi to a few acres. When the tribals of the village refused to sign the resolution, Rayagada district judge Sarat Chandra Mishra, appointed an independent observer, threatened to end proceedings.

The judge was further miffed when a Dongaria Kondh tribal asked for making changes in the resolution and wanted a copy for the villagers. "How can you be given community right for the entire Niyamgiri range," the judge asked.

The first resolution rejecting Vedanta's proposal to mine Niyamgiri would be sent to the MoEF after pallisabhas are held in the remaining 11 villages of Rayagada and Kalahandi. The second resolution staking community rights under FRA would be sent to a sub-divisional level committee of the district. In the last 3 years, only 20 individual claims under FRA have been settled in Serkapadi, but no community right is yet to be settled.

Despite Thursday's rejection, tribal people and anti-Vedanta activists say they would not drop their guard until the last pallisabha hearing is completed on August 19 at Jarpa village of Rayagada. "We have been cheated so many times by the government that we don't want to trust anyone. We will wait until the next month," said Dongaria tribal Tima Kadarka.

Lingaraj Azad of CPI(M-L), who has been spearheading the anti-Vedanta campaign, said he was hopeful that the remaining 11 pallisabhas would arrive at the same decision as Serkapadi.

The Serkapadi vote does not come as good news for Vedanta Alumina whose 1 million tonne per annum refinery in Lanjigarh has been facing a tough time. After it was closed on December 5 due to a paucity of bauxite, it reopened on July 11 following supplies from Gujarat.

The refinery has been facing a massive bauxite ore supply crisis after the MoEF withdrew in August 2010 the stage II forest clearance for the diversion of 660.749 hectares of forest land for mining bauxite from the Niyamgiri hills.

The MoEF order came after the N C Saxena panel recommended that mining in Niyamgiri would affect the area's ecology as well the primitive tribal group of Dongaria Kondhs living on Niyamgiri's slopes.


The Indian Express, 19 July, 2013, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/niyamgiri-first-of-12village-vote-rejects-vedanta-mining/1143931/0


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