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Congress demands Naveen’s resignation

BHUBANESWAR: The State unit of Congress on Saturday demanded Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s resignation and a CBI inquiry into the State Government’s agreement with Vedanta Alumina Limited for bauxite mining.

At a press conference here, Pradesh Congress president Jayadev Jena and senior party leader Srikanta Jena said Mr. Patnaik should step down ‘for showing undue favours to Vedanta Alumina’, the credentials of which had come under question in the wake of the Supreme Court order barring the company to extract bauxite from Niyamgiri hills at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district.

Observing that the Supreme Court was looking into the environment aspects of the controversial bauxite mining plans of the company, both the leaders demanded a CBI probe into the alleged corruption in the deal.

“The Chief Minister had gone out of his way to show undue favours to Vedanta Alumina by misleading the people. He had also laid the foundation stone of the company’s refinery project before the formal agreements were signed,” the PCC president said.

After the apex court’s observations questioning the credentials of Vedanta Alumina, the State Government should immediately cancel its agreements with the company with the regard to the alumina refinery project as well as mining of bauxite through a joint venture between the company and the State-run Orissa Mining Corporation, the Congress leaders said.

If the Government was so keen for an alumina refinery at Lanjigarh it should have approached public sector undertaking National Aluminium Company (NALCO) instead of involving Vedanta Alumina, they added.

The Congress leaders further questioned the Vedanta Group’s proposed university project near Puri and the State Government’s efforts to hand over 8,000 acres for the proposed project.

Stating that the Congress will stand by the local people, who were opposing handing over of land for the university project, they warned that the State government should shelve the project to avoid bloodshed in the area chosen for the proposed university. The party would make the deals between Vedanta and Naveen Patnaik Government a major issue in the coming days, they said.

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