Even as residents of Serkapadi village in Rayagada district unanimously opposed mining on the Niyamgiri hills fearing adverse impact on their cultural, social and religious rights, the Vedanta Aluminium Limited (VAL) expressed hope of getting ore from the State Government to run its refinery plant at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district.
“We are hopeful of getting a positive response from the State Government which has already received the report of the inter-ministerial committee on long term ore linkage to local industries,” chief operating officer of VAL Mukesh Kumar told reporters after his meeting with Chief Secretary J K Mohapatra.
The company resumed operations of the captive power plant on July 11 followed by refinery plant on July 17. The refinery unit at Lanjigarh is running at reduced capacity due to raw material constraints.
“In our presentation before the inter-ministerial committee on February 15, we have mentioned everything about our plans as well as alternative sources of bauxite to keep alive the refinery,” Kumar said. He was hopeful of positive response from the inter-ministerial committee report.
He, however, refused to comment on the ongoing gram sabhas in Rayagada and Kalahandi districts, which will decide the fate of proposed mining of Niyamgiri hills having a rich deposit of bauxite and the survival of company. Company sources said the refinery resumed operations by procuring bauxite from other States and abroad. They, however, failed to explain why it decided to resume operations by procuring ore from outside the State.
While shutting down operation of the refinery on December 5, 2012, the company had said it was unviable to procure bauxite from outside the State and run the plant. The company had further stated that ore from other sources had dried up and it will be difficult to run the plant unless the State Government provides bauxite mines.
Originally, the company had planned to resume operations at the end of June, but it decided to wait for the report of the inter-ministerial committee.