Workers riot at Vedanta refinery in India

AFP

2 09 2010

NEW DELHI — Thousands of workers in India ransacked the offices of a refinery run by British resource giant Vedanta, media reports said Thursday, in the latest of a series of difficulties for the company.

About 35 contract workers were arrested after buildings were attacked at the aluminium refinery at Lanjigarh in the eastern state of Orissa on Tuesday.

Vedanta received a major setback last month when its plans for a mine to supply the Lanjigarh refinery with bauxite were blocked by the government as the land was sacred to local tribes.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh accused Vedanta, owned by Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal, of violating environmental rules and showing « blatant disregard » for thousands of Dongria and Kutia Kondh tribespeople.

Ramesh also accused Vedanta of starting a six-fold expansion of the aluminium project without approval.

The violence at the refinery was due to Vedanta cancelling short-term staff contracts related to its expansion plans, the Economic Times reported.

The refinery was forced to halt work when 2,000 protesting workers carrying sticks and sharp objects cut off the power supply, the paper said.

Vedanta chief operating officer Mukesh Kumar estimated 200,000 dollars of property had been damaged by the protests.

Workers at Vedanta’s refinery attack office

business-standard.com

2 09 2010

Close to 75 workers at the alumina refinery complex of Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL) at Lanjigarh in western Orissa’s Kalahandi district were detained by the police, after 100-odd people, perceived to be a mix of contractual workers and outsiders, attacked the company’s office, damaging assets worth ‘1 crore.

Sources said those who did the vandalism were engaged by L&T, contractor of the VAL expansion project, and were agitated over the serving of retrenchment notices. This was a sequel to the halt of refinery expansion work at Lanjigarh following the N C Saxena committee report and subsequent statement of Union minister of environment and forests Jairam Ramesh, depicting the expansion as illegal in the absence of statutory environment clea

However, VAL authorities said neither VAL nor L&T had issued notices to lay off the contractual employees. They said these workers were being relocated to sites outside Orissa by L&T and they were unwilling to accept the proposal.

“Trouble began at around 11:20 pm last night when 100-odd miscreants attacked our company’s office. Thereafter, our refinery complex plunged into total darkness for about 45 minutes when some unidentified persons switched off the main switch of the plant. The trouble mongers were probably a mix of contractual workers and outsiders. These agitators finally fled after the project- affected people staying in the company’s rehabilitation colony came to our rescue,” Mukesh Kumar, chief operating officer (Lanjigarh) of VAL told Business Standard.

According to Kumar, the contractual workers were agitating as L&T had proposed to shift some of the workers outside Orissa, a move stiffly opposed by the workers. They had demanded immediate payment of Provident Fund. Though negotiations were held on Tuesday with the district collector and the labour vommissioner present, the issue could not be resolved.

~ par Alain Bertho sur 2 septembre 2010.

Publié dans दंगा, émeutes, riots