Activists and civil society organisations from across the country are up in arms over the arrest of Lingaraj Azad, the leader of Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti (NSS), which spearheaded the movement against bauxite mining by aluminium major Vedanta in the Niyamgiri hills, considered sacred by the local Dongria Kondhs. Terming the arrest of Azad, who is also the national vice president of Samajwadi Jan Parishad and national convenor of National Alliance for People바카라s Movements (NAPM), undemocratic, vindictive and politically motivated, they have demanded his immediate release and dropping of all 바카라cooked up바카라 charges against him. They have also drawn the attention of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) and the United Nations special rapporteur seeking their intervention in the matter.
For the record, Odisha police has sought to attribute the arrest of Azad on March 6 to the 바카라search and raid operations to nab the anti-socials, Maoist sympathisers and other disturbing elements before the General Elections, 2019바카라 ordered by DGP Dr. RP Sharma. But there is little doubt that the move is part of the Odisha government바카라s desperate efforts to provide bauxite to the Vedanta refinery at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district, which has been starved of raw material ever since 12 Gram Sabhas in and around the Niyamgiri hills unanimously rejected the proposal for bauxite mining in the hills under the historic, Supreme Court mandated referendum in July, August, 2013. Having failed to hand over the bauxite rich Niyamgiri hills 바카라 which has deposits of an estimated 80 million tons - on a platter to Vedanta after the SC바카라s intervention, the Naveen Patnaik government has now embarked on its Plan B, which envisages 바카라compensating바카라 the Anil Agarwal owned company with bauxite from the Kodingamali hills in neighbouring Koraput district. A corridor between Kodingamali and Niyamgiri is already in an advanced stage of construction while the state government has committed itself to providing Vedanta 70% of its bauxite requirement from the Kodingamali hills under its long-term linkage policy announced last year.
Azad has clearly invited the wrath of the government because he has proved to be a stumbling block in carrying out the government바카라s new, alternative plan, organising the local Kondhs against it. And branding the leaders of the anti-mining movement 바카라Maoist sympathisers바카라 and putting them behind bars on flimsy charges has been a time-tested tactic of state governments in Odisha and neigbouring Chhattisgarh.
Eminent activist Prafulla Samantara, the head of Lok Shakti Abhijan who won the Goldman Environment Award, considered the 바카라Green Nobel바카라, in 2017, laughs at the allegation. 바카라Does fighting for the rights of the indigenous tribes make someone a Maoist sympathiser?바카라 he asks terming the charge 바카라false and fabricated바카라 and demanding the immediate release of Azad.
The immediate trigger for Azad바카라s arrest was an incident on February 18 where members of NSS and local tribals protested the setting up of a CRPF camp at Trilochanpur village on the foothills of Niyamgiri. Kalahandi SP B Gangadhar says Azad led an attack on the camp with about 250 adivasis armed with 바카라bows and arrows바카라. But Samantara says the charge is laughable. 바카라The SP should know that tribals always carry bows and arrows whenever there come for a gathering. The protest was entirely peaceful. No one attacked the camp. You can verify this,바카라 he says. The camp is seen by the native Kondhs as a tactic to intimidate them and to facilitate the hassle-free construction of the corridor linking the Kodingamali and Niyamgiri hills.
The clamour for the release of Azad has been growing with each passing day. Among the prominent activists and organizations who have condemned the arrest of Azad and demanded his immediate release are Medha Patkar, Yogendra Yadav, Binayak Sen, Damayanti Barla, NAPM, SJP and PUDR. Tribals under the banner of NSS and Sachetana Nagarik Manch protested against the arrest of Azad at Bhawanipatna on Friday while SJP plans to submit a memorandum to Governor Prof. Ganeshi Lal seeking his intervention on March 11.
But if its past record is anything to go by, the Naveen Patnaik government is unlikely to heed the protest and can be trusted to go the whole hog in its scarcely veiled efforts to give a fresh lease of life to Vedanta, which has been languishing for the last six years due to the shortage of bauxite.
