Sunday, October 31, 2010

Pro-Vedanta rally demands industrialisation

The Pioneer, Oct 31,2010
Pioneer News Service | Bhawanipatna

With the Central Government's recent nod for continuation of Vedanta's one million tonne bauxite mining but a loud no to further expansion, it seems that the unaware tribals are up in arms in Lanjigarh on the Vedanta issue.

Reports said that the preparations for which began three months earlier by the primitive tribal group under the banner of Loksangram Manch and Niyamgiri Surakhya Samiti, Rayagada and Kalahandi took out a rally from Kadamguda village to Vedanta's main gate at Lanjigarh on Saturday. Thousands of tribals from Lanjigarh , Muniguda and Raigada attended the rally demanding closure of the plant. Four platoons of police force were deployed and Section144 of the CrPC was imposed near the plant to avoid any untoward incident.

Meanwhile, the pro-industry group had also planned to take out a rally at Lanjigarh but reports further said that police had denied the permission to hold a rally to avoid clashes among both the groups.

However, the pro-group planned to submit a memorandum under the banner of Niyamgiri Adibasi Bikash Parisha and took out a rally holding placards on Saturday from Townhall to Collectorate here and submitted a memorandum for the betterment of tribals demanding industrialisation should continue.

The memorandum further said the tribals living at the foothills of Niyamgiri hill are not developed yet. With the establishment of industries, the tribals' lives would improve with roads, hospital and electrification.

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