locals demand restart of Vedanta plant

Demanding restart of the Vedanta alumina refinery at lanjigarh, a delegation of locals with 10,000 signatures of their followers submitted a memorandum to Kalahandi district Collector Gobinda Chandra Sathy here on Thursday. They are also planning to meet Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in this regard. 

“We will also go to the Chief Minister with these 10,000 or even more signatures and request him to take steps to resume the alumina refinery of Vedanta Aluminium ltd (VAl),” said lanjigarh Anchalik Vikash Parishad president Sridhar Pesnia.

“After the closure of the plant, people have lost their livelihoods and they want the refinery to restart immediately. More than 15,000 people depend on the plant for their livelihoods directly or indirectly, and if the plant remains shut for a longer period, we will come to the streets,” said another local, Subas Agrawal. 

The alumina refinery has been shut down from December 5, 2012 due to acute shortage of bauxite, the raw material to run the pant.