HC to hear Vedanta mining plea on Feb 2

The Pioneer, Jan 11, 2011
PNS | CUTTACK

The Orissa High Court on Monday fixed February 2 for adjudicating the petition filed by Vedanta Aluminiom Limited (VAL) challenging the decision of the Central Government rejecting the company's stage-II bauxite mining in the Niyamgiri hills for its refinery at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district.

Although the matter came for hearing before a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice V Gopala Gowda and Justice Harjinder Singh Bhalla on Monday, the Bench adjourned the case to next month after hearing it partly and issued notice to the Centre.

The Bench is likely to go in for a joint hearing after tagging all the matters pertaining to the issue. Besides, the VAL, the State Government too has filed a petition in the matter while several PILs, including one of the Lanjigarh Anchalika Vikash Parishad, have been filed in the HC seeking to quash the October 22, 2010 notice of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF).

Disallowing mining in the Niyamgiri hills of Kalahandi district, the MoEF scrapped the six-fold expansion proposal of the VAL refinery from one million tonne per annum capacity to six million tonne-per-annum capacity. The MoEF stopped sourcing of raw material for Vedanta's Lanjigarh refinery from the mines not having environmental clearances.

The MoEF even asked the Jharkhand Government to ensure that the mines of the State supplying raw material to the Vedanta refinery get environmental clearances. The Centre also ordered Vedanta to immediately halt the expansion work of its refinery project and even asked the company to fulfil a number of conditions before operating its existing alumina refinery.

It may be mentioned here that allegations were levelled against Vedanta that it was in illegal possession of 26 hectares of forestland and was in an expansion mode to enhance its capacity to six million tonne from the existing one-million-tonne capacity.