[Reader-list] Join the Niyamgiri Puja on 16th March

[SURYA]

All are hereby invited to a puja being organised by
Dongria and other Kond pujaris on the sides of the
threatened mountain, Niyam Dongar, on the 16th of this
month - a puja to focus saving the mountain.

It is known from reliable sources that the supreme
court is on the verge of giving clearance to mine
bauxite on this mountain's richly forested summit,
after a case lasting over three years, on which the
London-based company Vedanta/Sterlite has paid
unprecedented sums to get clearance. It wants the
bauxite for the refinery below the mountain, which has
already polluted the Bamsadhara river, within weeks of
starting up. While the company chief, Anil Agarwal, is
being billed as one of the world's great
philanthropists, the "mafia raj" and gross levels of
pollution of air, water, sound and earth evident
around Lanjigarh prove otherwise.

The case has been characterised by a number of gross
illegalities and contraventions of the Constitutional
safeguards supposed to protect India's Adivasis and
India's natural environment. This raises serious
questions about the impartiality of the judiciary.
Currently Sterlite's mining application is with the
CEC (Central Empowerd Committee), whose composition
has just been changed (firing two members and bringing
in 4 new men), evidently with regard to the Niyamgiri
case.

Since nine of Orissa's other biggest mountains, which
have bauxite cappings like Niyamgiri, have been
grouped together with Niyamgiri in this case, and all
are the subject of numerous applications from mining
companies, a lot is at stake here. It is significant
that several of Andhra's mountains (just south of
Orissa) have recently been cleared for mining (by
Jindal, Nalco and a Saudi company), while
Vedanta/Balco's present mines in Chhattisgarh have not
received renewed clearance, putting more pressure on
their Niyamgiri application.

The Dongria are determined to resist any attempt to
mine Niyam Dongar, whose summit is sacred to their
main deity, Niyam Raja - "King of Law" - most
appropriate considering the likely imminent betrayal
of essential safeguards at the supreme court.

Rahul Gandhi (Sonia's son and heir to the Nehru
dynasty) was scheduled to meet the Dongria today. He
is known to be a keen conservationist, and was due to
fly to Lanjigarh by helicopter. It is reported that
this visit was cancelled at the last minute "for
security reasons", with police saying "the forest
there is full of Naxalites", which is definitely not
true. Last time the supreme court seemed about to give
clearance it was reported that armed police were due
to be sent to the Niyamgiri area.

So everyone willing and able is invited to the puja on
the 16th, and media persons are requested to attend,
since Vedanta-sponsored journalists have already
started spreading a highly distorted version of
Lanjigarh's "development."


-- 
"The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make
it fall."
-Che Guevera

-- 
"The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make
it fall."
-Che Guevera