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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Vedanta coalmine proposal fuels villagers' displacement fears by Aman Sethi

Vedanta coalmine proposal fuels villagers' displacement fears by Aman Sethi

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published Published on Feb 1, 2011   modified Modified on Feb 1, 2011

More than a thousand villagers from Chhattisgarh's coal-rich Raigarh district have expressed their opposition to a mine proposed by Vedanta Resources, a giant multinational.

Vedanta, if granted clearance, hopes to mine four million tonnes of coal a year to fuel the expansion of its 810-MW captive power plant on the Bharat Aluminum Company (BALCO) premises in Korba, Chhattisgarh. Vedanta acquired a 51 per cent stake in BALCO in 2001, and the remaining 49 per cent is still owned by the Government of India.

In its draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report, the company said coal was necessary to increase its power generation capacity from 810 to 1110 MW for enhancing BALCO's production.

The company seeks to acquire 1,070 hectares of land, of which about 700 hectares is owned by farmers. At a mandatory public hearing held at Taraimar, villagers shouted anti-Vedanta slogans, broke down and appealed to the local administration to save their land.
Nehru's gift

“I came here from Pakistan. Pandit Nehru gave me this land,” wept an old man Mandal, stressing that most of those who stood to lose their land were Bangladeshi refugees who had come to the undivided Madhya Pradesh since the 1960s. “We were kept in a refugee camp in Bengal for one year, before Nehru gave us 6 acres each in Raigarh,” said Mandal, as he mulled over the consequences of being displaced once more.

“Money is just paper, it blows off the pavement,” said Sukamari Mondal, a resident of the project-affected Baisi colony settlement, explaining that monetary compensation was no substitute for her land.

As per the 2006 Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) notification, the local administration must conduct public consultations to ascertain the concerns of people affected by large projects. At such gatherings, villagers are invited to discuss the potential environmental impact of projects.
Sole avenue

However, activists say, the hearings have become the sole avenue where villagers can formally register their protest, and so objections raised relate to the uncertainties of displacement, resettlement, employment and compensation rather than strictly environmental concerns.

“I believe that companies should be asked to provide social impact assessments rather than EIAs,” said Raghuvir Pradhan, an activist with the Ekta Parishad.

In his submission at the hearing, activist Ramesh Agarwal said the meeting was not conducted in accordance with the rules laid down in the MoEF notification.

The district administration, however, assured the villagers that their concerns would be recorded and conveyed to the MoEF.

The Hindu, 1 February, 2011, http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article1143974.ece?homepage=true


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