The National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS), Bhubaneswar, and EIA Resource and Response Centre (ERC), New Delhi, jointly organised a State-level consultation on the land Acquisition Ordinance and Mining Ordinance, 2014 and the redress forums on issues pertaining to environment such as the National Green Tribunal (NGT) here on Wednesday and Thursday.
Speaking on the occasion academician Manoranjan Mohanty said the effort of the Central Government to bring changes in the right to fair compensation and transparency in land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (lARR) Act will severely affect the life and livelihood of farmers, tribals, dalits, women and other marginalised section.
“Removing the provisions of consent and Social Impact Assessment (SIA), is undemocratic, and against the interest of common people,” maintained Mohanty.Sandeep Pattnaik of NCAS said the land Acquisition Ordinance will have significant impact on share croppers and agricultural labourers.
Chitta Behera demanded that the State Government should take public opinion and finalise its draft rule soon to protect the interest of the people.Environment lawyer Sankar Prasad Pani representing ERC has presented the issues of abandoned mining, forest diversion and blatant violation of environment laws by mines and industries.
“Mining alone has caused 44 per cent of total forest diversion in the State. Also the tribal community is at the receiving end of the impact of mining as most of the mines are concentrated in tribal dominated areas,” he said.Among others, Sunil Amat of Talcher Coal Mining and Hemant Rout participated in the deliberations.