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Village vote on Essar, Hindalco Mahan block between 18-22 August

Villagers will vote on whether the land can be used for mining and how to relinquish their forest rights, district magistrate said

Mahan Coal Ltd, a coal block joint venture of Essar Power Ltd and Hindalco Industries Ltd in Madhya Pradesh, will face a village vote between 18 and 22 August, a district administrator said on Tuesday. “They will vote on whether the land can be used for mining and how to relinquish their forest rights,” M. Selvendran, district collector and district magistrate, said on the phone from Singrauli.

“Tentatively it will be held 18-22 August. Only one village—Amelia—with a population of 2,200 people will vote after presenting its views.”

Amelia is located close to the mining block and the villagers sustain themselves on the forest produce such as mahua fruit, tendu leaves and firewood. If they vote to relinquish their forest rights, they will get an annuity in lieu of the forest produce and a hospital and school which also has to be agreed to under the vote. Activists from Greenpeace have camped at the location and were expected to stage a protest, a person in Singrauli said, requesting anonymity. However, the district officials have barred activists from the village at the time of voting.

Mahan Coal is a 50:50 joint venture between Essar Power and Hindalco, formed in 2006 to develop the coal block for their power plant and aluminium smelter, respectively.

But it could not take off because of opposition from activists, local residents and politicians, and soon became one of the high profile cases in the development verses environment debate. The targeted capacity of coal production from Mahan Coal is 8.5 million tonnes (mt), out of which 5.1mt coal will be supplied to Essar and 3.4mt to Hindalco, Mahan Coal says on its website.

Both end-use projects, constructed at a total investment of about Rs20,000 crore, started operations in 2013. The Supreme Court is expected to deliver its verdict soon on a case in which lawyer-politician Prashant Bhushan is a litigant and has opposed the way coal blocks were allocated in India. The verdict may override government procedures related to the coal project.

Source: www.livemint.com