Company Name : Generic Source : Hindustan Times

Smarting under the Centre's denial to USD 1.7 billion Niyamgiri mining project on alleged violations of forest and environment laws, Orissa government on Friday sought its reconsideration saying the proposal was compliant with the stipulated norms. Asserting that no forest and environmental law has been broken, 

The Orissa government has written a letter to the Centre seeking that "the Ministry of Environment and Forests may reconsider the matter in proper perspective and communicate its decision stage II (final) clearance at an early date".

"No scheduled tribe person lives in the Niyamgiri reserve forest area spread over 2,100 hectare of hilly land," the letter said highlighting how 88 million tonnes of bauxite remained unused atop Niyamgiri hills in Kalahandi district.

The state government also gave full assurance to the environment ministry that mining activities could start at Niyamgiri without hurting ecology of the area.

The state government's letter comes exactly four months after the Centre on August 24 rejected environment clearance to the mining project proposed by the state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) to feed raw materials to NRI billionaire Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Resources's proposed alumina refinery plant at Lanjigarh.