District administration slapped notices on 40 people and deployed paramilitary forces days ahead of hearing
Last year, villagers in Mali Hill resisted the bauxite mining project as Odisha government tried to extend Hindalco’s lease. Photo: Priya Ranjan Sahu Public hearing on the environment clearance (EC) for Mali Parbat Bauxite Mining by Hindalco Industries in Korapaut on January 7, 2023 was presided over by the district judicial officer. This was following the order of the Orissa High Court passed on December 1 last year.
A two-person bench headed by Chief Justice S Muralidhar and justice MS Raman at the high court of Odisha in Cuttack said the next public hearing on the case will be supervised by the district judge to ensure a free and fair proceedings.
However, the villagers are not pleased. While the public hearing did take place in accordance with the court’s orders, local activists told Down To Earth that the district administration issued notices to 40 community leaders under sections 107 and 148 of the Indian Penal Code two days before the hearing “to break the community’s morale during the hearing”, though they were not detained.
“Everyone is applauding the district administration of Koraput for carrying out a public hearing as per the High Court’s orders to ensure that residents of the villages can put their issues forwards, but no one is talking about the mind games that they played,” said Raja Raman, a student from Koraput who studies Adivasi movements.
The district administration had also deployed paramilitary forces to parade in the village on January 6 to instill fear among the people, he added.
“The memories of the last clash in September 2021, when 28 youths were detained and paramilitary personnel entered people’s homes are still fresh. This was done to break the community’s will and to subdue them. But it was brave of them to have attended the public hearing despite everything,” he added.
Around 2,000 people from the local communities attended the hearing on January 7 and 80-90 of them raised objections to granting EC to Hindalco. Around 90 per cent of the people from the local communities opposed the EC.
In 2006, Hindalco was granted EC for an area of 268.110 hectares of Mali Parbat to carry out bauxite mining.
During the 26th meeting of the Expert Appraisal Committee in January 2021, it was noted that the project proponent obtained EC in 2006 and its validity expired after 2011. The proponent operated the mines from 2012 to 2014 without obtaining EC under Environmental Impact Assessment Committee Notification, in violation of the rules.
The committee also did not allow the proponent capacity expansion from 600,000 million tonnes per year to 900,000 million tonnes.
The high court has asked the district administration and the Odisha Pollution Control Board to submit all the documents by January 15, 2023. The hearing in the high court has been scheduled for January 30, 2023.
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