All the five villages of Kalahandi have voted against mining in Niyamgiri hills. Ijurpa, the last in the series of villages holding gram sabhas to establish their socio-cultural and religious rights, wrapped up the exercise for the district on Tuesday.
All the four voters, incidentally from one household, expressed their resistance to bauxite mining in Niyamgiri and put their signatures to seal the verdict.
Ijurpa was a peculiar case as there was just one voter on the list before the whole process for gram sabha had started. However, a revision and update saw the number rising to four, all from one family of non-tribal forest dwellers. All of them turned up at the gram sabha and joined seven other villages which have voted against bauxite mining in the hills.
With Ijurpa, gram sabha in Kalahandi district is complete.
The rest four villages belong to Rayagada and their respective palli sabhas will resume the process once again from August 1.