In absence of low lying land, Vedanta digging private land to create ash pond nearby village area in Brajrajnagar.

Corporate high-handedness of Vedanta is again coming to public eye as they are digging privately owned land which is just 100 metre distant from Nuamunda village in Brajrajnagar assembly constituency of Jharsuguda district of Odisha. Aithough  the consent to establish letter for ash pond for M/s Vedanta Limited says clearly that the ash disposal should be for reclamation of the low lying area. But in absence of the low lying area, the Vedanta is seen to engage big excavators to dig and create pond size area in an estimated 9.66 acres of land. Moreover, the site selection of this proposed ash pond is just 100 metre distant from the nearby village Nuamunda which would pose serious environmental problem for this human habitat. And strangely the villagers of Nuamunda told NFTV that the Vedanta has not taken consent from Gram Sabha and creating ash pond in their  privately owned rayati land. As villagers are opposing this high-handedness of Vedanta, now they are threatened said the villagers. The district collector on being asked about how could the consent to establish ash pond has been given to Vedanta in plane privately owned land which is nearby to a village, he said this needed to be investigated whether Vedanta has got clearance from both environmental  and Gram Sabha end. This very deviation from the principle of reclamation of the low lying land at Nuamunda and that too without Gram Sabha approval is about to create public outrage in times to come if district administration does not take a timely action. This violation of the section 25 of water control(Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act,1974 and section 21 of Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act,1981 with ash pond creation needs serious action for greater good of environment and public health of Nuamunda villagers.

Adminstrator