Post News Network
Pottangi, Dec 19: Thousands of people in this block of Koraput district Saturday staged a demonstration at the block headquarters pressing for scrapping of a bauxite mining lease awarded to aluminium giant Nalco by the state government.
People from across all sections of society under the aegis of Serubandha Parvat Surakhya Samiti, an outfit protesting quarrying in Serubanda Mountain, took out a rally and submitted a three-page memorandum to the governor through the tehsildar. BDO Saroj Kumar Biswal received the memorandum in the absence of the tehsildar. The mountain is sprawled across 3,000 hectares of land, tehsil office sources said.
The locals demanded immediate scrapping of the lease in the interest of people. According to the memorandum, livelihood of several people of about 10 panchayats of Pottangi and Semiliguda blocks would be adversely hit if mining activities are carried out by the aluminum giant in the mountain. People depend on the hill for firewood, medicinal plants, siali leaves and other day to day requirement. Besides, there would be an acute shortage of food for domestic animals and shortage of water for drinking and irrigation purpose, the locals pointed out and added that such condition would increase farmer suicide cases and force youths into migrating to other states in search of work.
In the memorandum, the protesters reminded the authorities about the plight of people displaced by HAL at Sunabeda and Nalco at Damanjodi who still continue to fight for rehabilitation and resettlement.
Copies of the memo were submitted to the Chief Minister, minister of steel and mines, chief conservator of forest, collector and other key officials of administration.
Samiti’s president Bhagaban Golari, vice-president Sunil Khara, secretary Muralidhar Guntha and several others took part in the rally.
IRB jawans were deployed in the block headquarters town in the wake of the demonstration. All the commercial establishments at the block headquarters kept their shutter down in support of the rally.
