Orissa HC to hear Vedanta plea on Feb 2

The Environment ministry has stopped mining in the Nyamgiri hills for the company to source its raw material.

The Orissa High Court today fixed February 2 for adjudicating the petition filed by Vedanta Alumina Limited (VAL) challenging the decision of the Center in rejecting its Stage-II bauxite mining in Niyamgiri Hills for the Lanjigarh Refinery.

Although,the matter came up for hearing before the Division Bench of Chief Justice V Gopala Gowda and Justice Harjinder Singh Bhalla,the Bench adjourned the case to next month after hearing it partly.

The Bench is likely to go for a joint hearing after tagging all matters on the issue. Besides VAL,the Orissa government too has filed a separate petition on the case while several PILs,including one by Lanjigarh Anchalika Vikash Parishad were also filed in the HC seeking to quash the October 22,2010 notice of Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF).

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Disallowing mining in the Niyamgiri Hills of Kalahandi district,the MoEF had scrapped the six-fold expansion proposal of the refinery from one million tonne per annum capacity to six million tonne per annum capacity. The ministry had stopped sourcing raw material for Vedanta’s Lanjigarh refinery from mines not having environmental clearance.

The ministry had even asked the Jharkhand government to ensure that mines from the state supplying raw material to Vedanta refinery get environmental clearance. The Centre had ordered Vedanta to immediately halt expansion work of the refinery project asking the company to fulfill a number of conditions before operating its existing alumina refinery.

It was alleged that Vedanta was in illegal possession of 26 hectares of forest land and it was in an expansion mode to enhance its capacity to six million tonne from its existing one million tonne capacity.

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