Cong, Left united against Vedanta

The Statesman, May 15, 2007

Statesman News Service
BHUBANESWAR, May 14: The Congress and Left parties rallied under the Green Kalahandi banner today to declare their opposition to Vedanta Alumina project. They demanded a CBI probe into the “undue favours” shown to the company and did not hesitate to say that the role of certain Central ministers could also come under the purview of the probe.
The state Congress has demanded review of the SEZ status accorded to the project recently by the Centre.
Declaring a satyagraha programme at Lanjigarh from 16 June during which Vedanta company officials and vehicles will not be allowed entry, Mr Bhakta Charan Das, Mr S Jena and Mr Jayadev Jena (all Congress), Mr Santosh Das (CPI-M) and Asis Kanungo (CPI) launched a tirade against the state government.
Grilled on how they could absolve the Central government and blame the state alone when clearances and SEZ approvals were accorded by the Centre, Mr Srikant Jena said if some of the Central ministers had done anything wrong, they too could come under the CBI probe. Talking to reporters, they narrated the sequence of events dating back to 2003-04 when chief minister Mr Naveen Patnaik laid foundation stone for the project as a pre-poll measure even before MoU had been signed till the current situation where construction activity was on despite the matter was pending in the Supreme Court.
The leaders were hard-pressed to answer questions on their opposition to mining the Niyamagiri hills on environmental grounds and at the same time drawing a distinction between OMC and private players.
The Left leaders also failed to respond when it was pointed out that the Congress supports direct negotiation between MNCs and the villagers as far as land acquisition was concerned, while the CPI has opposed such a policy.
Mr Bhakta Charan Das, who heads the Green Kalahandi outfit, announced that people of the district will court arrest, erect check-gates and prevent entry of Vedanta officers from 16 June.
“For over one year, we have been protesting peacefully and the government has ignored our demands. So we are forced to take recourse to such steps,” he noted.
Asked what would be their stand if the Supreme Court were to clear the mining and other related disputes in favour of the company, Mr Das said the matter was in “people’s court” and they had decided to oppose the project tooth and nail.
Mr Das, who had launched a padayatra in the area recently, said people of Kalahandi did not want a reversal of their economic prosperity. The district hd gained worldwide notoriety for starvation deaths and child sale during the eighties, but subsequently, it has transformed into the rice bowl of the state.
The mindless industrialisation and mining activity will destroy their agricultural growth and prosperity and push people back to the drought related distress condition of the eighties, he said.
Unfortunately, the alumina project is going to reverse the green revolution that has taken place over the last decade in Kalahandi and at least 300000 people, who have benefited from the agricultural turn around, will be economically displaced, said Mr Bhakta Das.
He wondered how reputed institutes which had initially studied the mining area and rejected the proposal on grounds of ecological destruction had subsequently modified their report to suit the needs of the industry.
It is pertinent to note here that the contentious issues related to the Vedanta project had first been raised by Congress MLA Mr LB Mohapatra and followed up by several other social activists and another Congress MLA Mr Debasis Patnaik at a time when neither Mr Srikanta Jena nor Mr Jayadev Jena were in the picture.
Of late, the Jayadev-Srikant-Bhakta combine has, however, staked claim to leadership of the movement without involving Mr Mohaptra, Mr Patnaik and others who had initiated it and taken the matter to Supreme Court.