"We cannot be befooled by the outsiders spearheading a campaign against mining and will certainly not tolerate their anti-development mindset," said Saraswati Majhi, a young local tribal leader and Chairperson, Zilla Parishad, Rayagada.
Around 25,000 local inhabitants of Kashipur block of Rayagada district and Thuamul Rampur block of Kalahandi district took out a rally from Hanuman Temple and Helipad, assembled in front of local Tehsil office and Police Station demanding bauxite mining in Sijimali and a refinery in Kashipur by Vedanta and protesting unnecessary interference by outsiders.
The participants in the rally under the leadership of many PRI members including Sarpanches, former sarapanches, Samiti Members, former Samiti Members and LAMPS president demanded that the anti-mining activists need not unnecessary interfer in the development projects in their area.
"The outsiders neither stayed in our villages affected with water and other infrastructural deficit nor reached out to us when we faced Cholera epidemics, Covid pandemic, hunger deaths or migration for petty jobs. Just showing their face now to instil violence against mining among our local brothers and sisters reflect their ulterior motives. They can not just decide on behalf of us," a few of them said.
The villagers en masse went around the main road of Kashipur and submitted a memorandum to the President of India through the Additional Tehsildar and IIC, Kashipur. They requested her to start the mining as soon as possible and assured to extend their full support for the public hearings to be held on October 16 in Kashipur block and in Thuamul Rampur block on October 18.
Some of the leaders who joined the rally expressed their apprehension whether the refinery plant will be established by Vedanta in Kashipur though they wholeheartedly support the mining in their area. Vedanta has proposed to extract 9 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of bauxite from Sijimali on a lease area of 1,549.02 hectares via opencast mining. More than two-thirds of the lease area belongs to the State Government.
"We have heard that several green technologies have evolved as far as mining and refinery are concerned. The importer country procures products of those companies that use the green technologies leading to least pollution. We are confident that a company of Vedanta repute will certainly use these technologies in pragmatic mining in Sijimali. We will applaud if Vedanta puts its refinery in Kashipur," said State secretary, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh Jogesh Das.