State in fix over bauxite mining

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, April 20, 2013: The state owned APMDC is now clearly in a fix over the contentious bauxite mining issue in the state after the apex court’s Friday’s order on Niyamgiri’s bauxite mining licenses in neighbouring Odisha.

The Supreme Court in its order on the case filed by Odisha Mineral Development Corporation (OMDC) on Friday directed the Odisha government to place the issue of proposed mining before gram sabha and the gram sabha would take a decision within three months. Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) should take a final decision on the grant of stage II clearance for the bauxite mining project in the light of the decisions of the gram sabha within two months thereafter.

The state owned APMDC which had, until now, been given licenses by the state government with the rider that it would have to get clearances from MoEF to mine bauxite in Vizag Agency, had on many occasions argued that since bauxite comes under major minerals category, there was no need to take local grama sabha’s consent to go ahead with the mining as per Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) ACT.   

The state government  in a recent letter to the union tribal welfare ministry on Feb 7  responding to union minister V Kishore Chandra Deo’s directives to the state government to cancel the licenses, had also laid emphasis on the same argument of no necessity to take consent from grama sabha to mine bauxite, which is a major mineral.

In an RTI reply in 2005 to a tribal rights activist too APMDC argued the same about grama sabha’s consent. “APMDC has been arguing the same whenever and wherever the occasion is on the grama sabha consent. Now with the supreme court’s decision on Niyamgiri  bauxite mining laying emphasis on importance of grama sabhas and its consent we will have to wait and see what’s the next move of the APMDC going to be,” said Samata, an NGO, coordinator, G Srinivas, who has been working on the traibal rights and againt illegal mining.

Deo, too in many earlier occasions said that licenses to APMDC were given violating PESA Act, threatening the livelihood of many tribals in Vizag Agency. A four member committee appointed by the MoEF to study various aspects of proposed bauxite mining in Vizag Agency in December 2011, too recommended that before proceeding clearance under the Forest Conservation Act a gramsabha or the panchayat at appropriate level located within ten kilometers radius of the mining area should be consulted as contained in PESA Act and also approval should be taken from the Andhra Pradesh Tribes Advisory Council, which is a constitutional body under the fifth schedule to advise Government on all matters relating to tribals.

After wide spread opposition from local tribals on the proposed bauxite mining in Vizag Agency, without going ahead with according stage II clearances, MoEF appointed a four member expert committee headed by Former Director General of Forests and Secretary to Union government, JC Kala to study the issue.