The following statements by the National Alliance of People’s Movements and the Odisha based Ganatantrik Adhikar Surakhya Sangathan are among many expressions of outrage at state attacks using the anti-terror Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) on Adivasis seeking to protect the Niyamgiri hills from bauxite mining. Find out more here: https://www.counterview.net/2023/08/state-attacking-activists-to-break.html ; https://pudr.org/free-niyamgiri-stop-arrests-illegal-detentions-and-attacks-nss-and-people-kashipur ; https://countercurrents.org/2023/08/withdraw-uapa-cases-against-leaders-activists-and-supporters-of-the-movement-led-by-niyamgiri-surakhya-samiti/
Tag: Nyamgiri
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This is chilling news.
“The Home Ministry has said in its annual report that at least two civil rights groups working for tribal people in Odisha and Jharkhand were allegedly acting as a front organisation for the Maoists and were using “displacement of local communities” as their main plank.”
Read the rest of the article in The Hindu here :
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/centre-links-two-ngos-to-maoists/article18072465.ece
Background
Tribal organisations and the Dongria Kondhs, who consider the Niyamgiri Hills sacred, have been locked in a battle since 2013 over the Anil Agarwal-owned Vedanta Resources’ plans to mine bauxite from the ecologically fragile, but thickly forested hill.
In 2013, gram sabhas of 12 villages around the Niyamgiri Hills unanimously rejected Vedanta’s plan under the PESA Act of 1996 giving rights to forest users.
When Aditya Prasad Padhi, Odisha’s chief secretary, was asked by rediff.com if he was hopeful about the Odisha government convincing the tribals to allow mining in the hills, he remarked,
“Who knows the future? It is for the people of the region to understand the benefits that it will bring.” http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=13287
British mining giant Vedanta`s chairman Anil Agarwal openly backs Modi`s government. If community resistance is linked to Maoism then this opens the way to violent persecution of the people who legally stand between him and the mountain he so covets.
Red paint was thrown on the steps of the building where the Vedanta AGM was held in 2012 to symbolise the blood on the hands of the compay
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