Express News Service
Bhubaneswar, December 24
WITH the sound and fury dying down in the aftermath of Centre’s no to Niyamgiri mining by Vedanta, a fresh move has begun to revive the issue. The State Government, in a letter to the Centre, has sought review of the decision. And it has polled all statistics to show that no violation did ever take place and Niyamgiri mining be allowed.
The proposal should be reconsidered in a proper perspective and the stage-II clearance accorded, the letter said. It reportedly maintains that there are no ST community members in the Niyamgiri reserve forest area in Kalahandi district.
The Government also gave assurance to the Environ Ministry that mining activities could start without hurting ecology of the area. The letter comes exactly four months after the Centre rejected environment clearance to the mining project proposed by the State owned OMC to feed raw material to Vedanta’s alumina refinery at Lanjigarh.
The letter, sent by the Environment and Forest Department on Wednesday, says that the matter concerning violation of the Forest Rights Act have been investigated by the ST & SC Development Department. All pending claims pertaining to diversion of 660.74 hectares of forest land by the mining project are being taken care of in accordance to law, the Government claimed.
The minister for Steel and Mines Raghunath Mohanty asserted that no tribal actually lived in the reserve forest area of Niyamgiri and all work at the project was done as per the Supreme Court judgment.
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