Who shut down Vedanta?

Tathya, Oct 13, 2012
Bhubaneswar : 13/October/2012 

Who is responsible for the shutdown of an alumina refinery of Vedanta Aluminium Limited (VAL) at Lanjigarh in backward Kalahandi district?

 

Is it Vedanta Group Chairman Anil Agarwal or Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik or the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi?

 

For whose fault uncertainty prevailed over the livelihood of about 7,000 people?

 

A series of question now hits the common man who is indeed worried over such development of the state.

 

Though temporarily, VAL announced shutdown of its 1mtpa alumina refinery, the incident has come as a major setback for the industrialization process in the state.

 

The shutdown could have an adverse impact on the state and its Chief Minister’s image at least in the investors’ community across the world.

 

The message is clear and loud now that investor’s interests are not protected in Odisha.

When the big ticket projects like POSCO and ArcelorMittal are unable to implement their projects, VAL’s shutdown has added salt to the injury.

 

VAL’s refinery project was shutdown despite the fact that the plant was sitting on the heap of bauxites. “About 80 Million Ton of bauxite is reserved around 30 km radius of Lanjigargh,” said an industry insider.

 

This is not all; one can easily watch the Niyamgiri bauxite reserve by standing at the premises of the refinery plant.

 

“While the company thought of setting a refinery plant at Lanjigarh, country’s one of the backward area, it had no idea that the plant would be shut down for bauxite,” said a senior company official.

 

The State Government also signed MoU with the company with assurance that it would make raw material arrangement for the refinery. “We have not received a gram of bauxite from the Odisha Government even during last seven years of operation,” said the senior official.

 

The company, which had already invested Rs 10,000 crore plus in the Lanjigarh project, took this decision after informing the State Government, said he.

 

VAL’s cry for bauxite, however, did not reach the State Government even as it had committed to supply the raw material.

 

The State Chief Secretary B K Patnaik recently told reporters that the State Government cannot do anything immediately as bauxite mining required several formalities and clearances.

 

Interestingly, the Chief Minister of the bauxite rich Odisha, also could not stop shutdown of the project. A delegation of refinery plant’s employees and local people had recently apprised the Chief Minister.

However, there was no result as the local people and the employees’ fate entered into an uncertain phase. Nobody actually knows when the refinery will resume operation.

“We will start production after stocking certain amount of bauxite,” a top official said.

While VAL claims that it is not responsible for the shutdown of the plant, Odisha Government maintained that Centre has been approached for early clearances for the plant.

Though Odisha Mining Corporation was granted Stage-II environmental clearance for mining at Niyamgiri hills, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) showed red flag to the Rs 5,000 crore mining project.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is said to be instrumental in rejecting environment clearance to the mining project at the eco-sensitive Niyamgiri hills.

Gandhi scion came all the way from Delhi to Lanjigarh to assure the tribal people that they will not suffer due to VAL.  

The industry circle is now raising question; who is next in the line to close the shop due to raw material shortage in the mineral rich Odisha.