BHUBANESWAR: A fortnight after the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change deferred the decision on Vedanta Ltd’s proposal for diversion of 708.2 hectare of forest land for operationalisation of Sijimali bauxite mines, the state government has constituted a committee to monitor rehabilitation and resettlement at the project level.
The 12-member panel headed by Rayagada collector will review the progress of the project and carry out post-implementation social audits.
Other members include Koraput MP, Rayagada MLA, Kashipur panchayat samiti chairperson, representatives of women and Scheduled Tribe communities residing in the affected area along with the president of an NGO.
The rehabilitation and resettlement committee will meet at least once in every three months and review the payment entitlements besides working out the displacement work plan on agreed terms.
The 1,549 ha Sijimali bauxite block is located in 18 villages under Thuamul Rampur tehsil of Kalahandi district and Kashipur tehsil of Rayagada district.
“After completion of resettlement process, the R&R committee shall suggest the name of an organisation to undertake an independent social audit at the cost payable by the district collector,” read a notification issued by the Revenue and Disaster Management department on Wednesday.
On August 25, the ministry’s Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) deferred the forest land diversion citing that the state government reports were silent on the concerns raised by the local people in their representations and petitioners before the Orissa High Court.
In its order on March 5 this year, the high court had directed the state government to address the concerns raised by the petitioners and local people in their representations. The court recorded the allegations that the gram sabha resolutions were fraudulently made and no consent for diversion was duly obtained.
While deferring the decision, the FAC had also flagged concerns over habitat loss and ecological issues citing the presence of elephants and vulnerability of the area to soil erosion.
It has asked the government to submit the plan to mitigate the soil erosion and seek the comments from the Project Elephant division apart from a detailed report on each compensatory afforestation site and the existing transmission lines.
Vedanta was allocated the bauxite block with an estimated reserve of 311 million tonne following an auction in March 2023. It has proposed to mine 9 million tonne of bauxite annually to partly feed its 6 million tonne per annum refinery at Lanjigarh.