BHUBANESWAR : The BJD on Friday described Dharmendra Pradhan’s statement on bauxite allocation during the Naveen Patnaik-led government’s tenure as misleading and motivated.
Addressing a media conference at Sankha Bhawan, Bhograi MLA Goutam Buddha Das and media coordinator Lenin Mohanty said in 2004, during the Naveen Patnaik government, an agreement between OMC and a private company provided for the supply of 150 million tonnes of bauxite. However, in 2015, when the BJD government was in power, OMC cancelled the joint venture agreements signed in 2004.
The leaders said the high court judgment records that, following changes to the MMDR Act, the OMC cancelled the agreement in September 2015. The company did not challenge the cancellation at the time, and the high court held that the cancellation had attained finality, they added.
The BJD leaders said a new arrangement subsequently came into effect. In 2018, under the Long-Term Linkage Policy, a sale agreement was entered into between OMC and the company. In 2019, following an amendment to Rule 45 of the Mineral Concession Rules, OMC changed the bauxite pricing mechanism, triggering a dispute over the determination of the average sale price (ASP).
They said that even in 2023, when the BJD government was in power, the OMC did not accept the company’s demand to restore the earlier pricing formula. The BJD leaders also rejected Pradhan’s allegation that Naveen had written to the Centre seeking a reduction in the conversion factor to favour a private company. They said that in 2020, the Indian Aluminium Industry Association had flagged technical deficiencies in the ASP formula, following which Naveen wrote to the Centre seeking to protect Odisha’s interests.
The Gujarat government had also written to the Centre on the issue and the latter subsequently constituted a committee and revised the formula, they added.
