Hundreds of local people working at the alumina refinery of Vedanta Aluminium Limited (VAL) came to the streets of Lanjigarh on January 8, 2013 after a threat to their livelihood as a result of closure of the refinery. They appealed to the State and the Central Government to provide them alternate source of livelihood which is dangling in danger after the closure of Vedanta’s refinery at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district of Odisha.
“VAL has stopped production and if this situation continues, thousands of people working inside the plant will be jobless. Who will come to our rescue then? We request the state and central govt. to provide us alternate source of livelihood or alternate raw material source to the company to run the refinery,” said Sribaschha Tandi a local contractor engaged in the plant.
Local leaders including Sridhara Pesnia, Chandra Pesnia, Subas Agarwal, Rajendra Singhdeo of Lanjigarh came forward in support of the workers and demanded the govt. to take an immediate action. “The govt. should consider providing alternate source of bauxite to the plant. Or, we will go to the Odisha Assembly and Parliament in Delhi to save the only industry in our region which is providing livelihood to more than 10,000 people of Kalahandi,” said Sridhara Pesnia, President - Lanjigarh Anchalika Vikash Parishad.
The locals also voiced their concern over the anti-industry attitude of NGOs & civil society organisations which have been opposing Vedanta in Kalahandi, without any concern for the human misery that will result due to the closure.
Vedanta has closed its one million tonne alumina refinery based at Lanjigarh since December 5, 2012 due to shortage of bauxite which is the raw material to produce alumina.
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