Public Hearing On Hindalco’s Mining Cancelled Due To Opposition

The public hearing on mining in Mali hills was cancelled here due to protests by those opposing mining activities on environmental grounds. The district administration had organised the public hearing on environmental issues regarding the mining lease granted to Hindalco Industries Ltd at Kankada Amba under Semiliguda police station.

According to the reports, the local villagers along with environmental activists strongly opposed the mining in the hills and created disturbances. Police arrayed in the village failed to appease the disconcerted villagers and the public hearing had to be cancelled.

The cancellation followed an appeal by Lokshakti Abhiyan, an organisation opposed to mining and protection of the environment, to the authorities to stop the public hearing.

In a letter to Member Secretary of State Pollution Control Board, the organisation’s president Prafulla Samantara alleged that the agents of Hindalco, a unit of the Aditya Birla group, were moving from village to village and threatening the activists of Maliparbat Surakhya Samiti not to oppose mining for the last two weeks.

Hindalco Industries Ltd was granted the lease for mining in 268.11 hectares in the hills surrounded by Aligaon, Sorisa Padar and Kankada Amba villages under Semiliguda and Potangi tehsils of Koraput district. The company targeted to extract 0.6 million tonnes of mineral annually from the area. But its effort to mine the hills have so far not been fully successful.

 

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Leave a Comment