Orissa may move SC on Vedanta

“The matter will not be ending here. The Supreme Court is there. We may even approach the prime minister on the issue again,” Rajya Sabha member and senior Biju Janata Dal(BJD) leader Pyari Mohan Mohapatra told reporters on Wednesday.

The former bureaucrat, who is considered to be the principal adviser of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, said the Union ministry’s decision was a political one and was aimed at appeasing Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi who will visit  Kalahandi on Thursday.
“We were expecting such a decision from the Union Environment Ministry. It is aimed at appeasing Rahul Gandhi so that he can take the credit of stopping the mining activities as desired by the local tribals,” he said.

During his day-long visit to Kalahandi on Thursday, Rahul is scheduled to address a public meeting at Lanjigarh on the foothills of Niyamgiri besides a direct interaction with the local tribals. Rahul had visited Kalahandi and the Niyamgiri hills in 2008 and had assured local tribals of   his support in their struggle against the proposed mining project by Vedanta group.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to counter Rahul’s visit, the Biju Yuba Janata Dal, the youth wing of the BJD, has announced to hold a massive public meeting at Lanjigarh on September 3 to “expose” the conspiracy hatched by the Union government against the  industrialisation process taken up by the state government.