RAIPUR: A day after tribal villagers launched a strong protest march allocation of south Chhattisgarh’s Bailadila iron ore Deposit-13 at Kirandul in Dantewada to Adani Enterprises, former chief minister Ajit Jogi on Saturday came out in support of them. He asserted that he will not allow the state government to permit Adani to carry out mining activities in Bailadila.
“I will prefer dying but will never let the Bhupesh Baghel government allow Adani to excavate iron ore mines in Bastar. I will fight for the rights and existence of Bastar till my last breath and keep opposing the allotting of mines to Adani till the decision gets cancelled”, asserted Jogi in his address at Kirandul.
He lashed out at the state government alleging that Bhupesh Bhagel had earlier promised to not allow Adani to secure any mines in the state. ”But within five months (of Congress government), Adani has been given away five mines. If the CM is genuinely concerned about the welfare and rights of the tribals, the decision should be revoked”, the bureaucrat-turned-politician said.
To commence mining of 10 MTPA capacity Bailadila iron ore Deposit-13 at Kirandul, the central public sector unit (PSU) National Mineral Development Corporation and the state PSU Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation Ltd (CMDC) formed a joint venture as NMDC-CMDC Limited (NCL) in 2008.
In its press release, the NMDC cited that NCL is the owner of Deposit No 13 and only the contract of excavation and mine development is awarded to M/s Adani Enterprise Limited (AEL) to work as Mine Developer-Cum-Operator (MDO). “The work was awarded to Adani by inviting open tenders through transparent e-Tendering portal of MSTC (a government of India enterprise). It has been awarded to Adani on lowest offer basis through the transparent tender procedure”, the statement further stated.