Police lathi-charge agitators after group clash
Bhubaneswar: It was people’s resistance that forced the administration to put off a public hearing on environmental clearance for coal mining at Machhakata in Chhendipada Block of Odisha’s Angul district on Thursday.
The State Pollution Control Board along with the local administration had made arrangements to conduct the public hearing despite strong opposition to mining in the coal block allotted to Mahaguj Collieries Limited, an Adani Group company.
Activists and environmentalists maintained that the public hearing should not be held as the issue of coal block allocation was pending before the Supreme Court.
The administration suspended the hearing following a clash between a group of people allegedly hired by the company and the locals. Police lathi-charged the agitating villagers when the clash took place. At least, seven persons were injured in the incident.
Meanwhile, Prafulla Samantara, president of Lok Shakti Abhiyan, who had earlier written to the State Pollution Control Board and the Central government urging them to stop the public hearing in view of the Supreme Court order, congratulated the people of Chhendipada for their "resistance".
People of five gram panchayats, including Bagadia, Machhakata under the Chhendipada block Angul district, were opposed to the coal block allotment fearing that they would lose their agricultural land.
"The administration was forced to cancel the public hearing as the people who were to be displaced from 7,000 acres of agricultural land were determined to oppose the project," Mr. Samantara said in a statement. The hired men who attacked the villagers in the presence of police should be arrested, he demanded.
In a statement, Rabi Behera, president of Odisha unit of Samajwadi Party , demanded a probe into the lathi-charge of the villagers who were opposing mining fearing displacement.
The public hearing was "irrational and unlawful" as the Supreme Court had declared allotment of all coal blocks since 1993 illegal and the matter was pending hearing, Mr. Behera said.