KalingaTimes Correspondent
Bhubaneswar: Opposition to Vedanta Alumina Limited's refinery project at Lanjigarh in Orissa's Kalahandi district gained strength on Monday with three Opposition parties deciding to resist the venture tooth and nail.

The Orissa units of the Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Communist Party of India announced at a press conference here that they would launch a Satyagrah programme starting June 16 to prevent all vehicles of the company from entering into its refinery at Lanjigarh.

Alleging that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was extending all support to the company, they demanded a CBI inquiry into the "unholy alliance between Patnaik and Vedanta Alumina' over the whole matter.

Although the company is yet to obtain mining lease for sourcing bauxite for the one million tonne alumina refinery, it has already started trial production in the unit.

The leaders of the three parties vehemently opposed the company's plans to extract bauxite from the ecologically sensitive Niyamgiri Hills, which is also home to the Dongaria Kondh tribe.

"The ongoing alumina refinery project of Vedanta Alumina company at Lanjigarh will have devastating effect on the ecology of Niyamgiri area which is one of the oldest and richest forest areas in terms of biodiversity," the leaders said in a joint statement.

Stating that Indravati multipurpose project had helped Kalahandi, once infamous for droughts and poverty, transform into the rice-bowl of Orissa, they said the alumina project would reserve the green revolution. "As a result, three lakh people who have benefited out of this agricultural transformation would be badly hit.

As many as 36 streams and two major rivers have originated from Niyamgiri and four lakh people in eight Blocks of Kalahandi and Rayagada districts who depend on these water sources for agriculture and other use will suffer the most, the leaders said.

With regard to the petitions filed in the Supreme Court on the question of the company extracting bauxite from Niyamgiri, the three parties said if the apex court decided the matter in favour of the company the people of Kalahandi will stick to their stand and oppose the project

"Under no circumstances, the interests of the people will be sacrificed for the benefit of the company," they said.

The leaders who signed the statement are Jayadev Jena, Srikanta Jena and Bhakta Charan Das of the Congress, Santosh Das of the CPI(M) and Ashis Kanungo of the CPI.