There?s fresh trouble brewing for Vedanta Resources?s alumina project in Orissa with the project oustees intensifying the movement, demanding a special relief and rehabilitation (R&R) package.
Thousands of oustees are on dharna in front of the Vedanta Aluminium?s alumina project at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi for the last one month. However, they are now planning to intensify their agitation to press for their demands by staging demonstrations in Bhubaneswar soon.
Vedanta Bisthapita O Prabhabita, an organisation of oustess, has announced its next phase of agitational programmes.
?We are going to launch a massive agitation programme from Bhubaneswar very soon,? said organisation president Surendra Nath Nag.
The organistion is seeking an R&R Policy package on the lines of compensation announced for outstees of the proposed Posco-India?s steel plant in Jagatsinghpur district.
The organisation is demanding that the villagers who have lost their land and houses for the project should be given company shares of R10 lakh free of cost. The other demands are ? price of land acquired for the project should be raised to R10 lakh per acre; all persons above 18 years of age who have lost land to the project should be given one-time compensation of R5 lakh in lieu of a job in the project; those who have lost both land and house should be given permanent job in the project.
The organisation has also demanded that the company should take up education projects in the area. All students of the displaced villages should be provided vocational training free of cost. School buildings should be constructed free of cost and teachers should also be provided.
Demanding construction of a 50-bed hospital at Lanjigarh, the organistion said all families in the 10-km radius of the project should be provided medical facilities free of cost. Drinking water facilities and provision of electricity should be made for these villages.
?Unless demands are met in the next 10 days, displaced families will launch dharna at Bhubaneswar,? said Nag.
The Lanjigarh project is facing the wrath of the environment ministry which has stopped its expansion programme and cancelled the stage-I clearance accorded to its bauxite mining project at Niyamgiri.
The second R&R package offered to the Kalinga Nagar oustees has strengthened the morale of the Lanjigarh project oustess. The Orissa government in early 1990s had acquired 10,000 acre of land at Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur district by paying the compensation as per the rates at that time. However, in 2000 it had to offer a fresh package of compensation conceding to the demands of project oustees.