The Lanjigarh Development Story
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Vedanta Resources plc Resources Vedanta The Lanjigarh development story: The Lanjigarh development story: Vedanta’s Vedanta’s perspective Vedanta’s perspective The Government of India and the Orissa Government should take a keen interest to set up at least a large alumina plant because we have got a heavy deposit of bauxite in Niyamgiri and Sijimalli of Kalahandi district. Several discussions have been held at the State and Central level. But there has not been any alumina plant. If there is an alumina plant, then a minimum of 40,000 people can be sustained out of the different kinds of earnings. From that, sir, I am suggesting some permanent measures. This is a chronic problem” Mr Bhakta Charan Das, Kalahandi MP, speech to the Lok Sabha, India’s National Parliament, 28 November 1996 Contents About this report ......................................................................................................................................................... 3 Statement by president and Chief Operating Officer Dr Mukesh Kumar, Vedanta Aluminium, Lanjigarh ........ 4 Executive summary ..................................................................................................................................................... 5 Part 1 General overview of the Lanjigarh Project ............................................................................................................. 12 About Vedanta ........................................................................................................................................................... 13 Mission and values ................................................................................................................................................... 14 Corporate responsibility and human rights ............................................................................................................ 14 India, aluminium and development in Orissa ......................................................................................................... 16 The importance of Odisha in the aluminium industry ............................................................................................. 19 Economic and social conditions in Odisha ............................................................................................................ 21 What about the alternative view of development? .................................................................................................. 23 The Lanjigarh Project ................................................................................................................................................ 24 The Dongria Kondh ................................................................................................................................................. 25 The consultation process for establishing the project ............................................................................................ 28 The process of refinery site selection ..................................................................................................................... 31 The management of the refinery ............................................................................................................................. 33 Relations with the community ................................................................................................................................. 35 Those displaced or otherwise directly impacted by the refinery ........................................................................... 35 The wider community .............................................................................................................................................. 35 Our community engagement vision is: ................................................................................................................... 35 The future of the refinery ......................................................................................................................................... 40 Amnesty’s critique of the Lanjigarh Project ............................................................................................................ 41 A respect for UN standards of human rights at Vedanta ....................................................................................... 42 Amnesty’s approach ............................................................................................................................................... 43 Amnesty’s critique of the EIAs ................................................................................................................................ 43 Transparency .......................................................................................................................................................... 44 Managing responsibly at Vedanta .......................................................................................................................... 46 Our continuing journey ............................................................................................................................................. 48 Part 2 The detailed response to Amnesty’s “Generalisations, Omissions and Assumptions” Report ......................... 54 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................ 55 Our general approach .............................................................................................................................................. 56 The health impact of the refinery: the importance of technical analysis ............................................................. 57 Amnesty’s concerns in detail ................................................................................................................................... 59 1. Generalisations on affected communities ...................................................................................................... 59 2. Generalisations on the usefulness of technology for environmental control.................................................. 62 3. Review of comments on risks to human rights ............................................................................................... 65 4. Comments on displacement and migration ................................................................................................... 68 5. Comments on gender ..................................................................................................................................... 71 6. Omissions of information and detail ............................................................................................................... 73 7. Assumptions on livelihoods ............................................................................................................................ 74 8. Assumptions on location ................................................................................................................................ 77 9. Assumptions on air pollution .......................................................................................................................... 80 Response to the table on page 16 of generalisations omissions assumptions entitled “Summary of failings in Vedanta’s EIAs to meet India’s regulatory requirements” ............................................ 83 1 Appendices Appendix 1 Vedanta’s Human Rights Policy .............................................................................................................................. 90 Appendix 2 Alumina refinery ...................................................................................................................................................... 91 Appendix 3 Resettlement and Rehabilitation Process ............................................................................................................... 92 Appendix 4 Executive Summary of Xavier Institute of Social Services Report of Vedanta’s community programmes ............ 94 Appendix 5 MDGs .................................................................................................................................................................... 101 Appendix 6 Contents pages for mandatory EIA and Summary of practice in India and Rapid EIA for Aluminium Refinery .. 103 Appendix 7 the 29 Recommendations of the URS Scott Wilson Report of July 2011 and our progress towards them as of November 2011 ............................................................................................................................................ 111 Appendix 8 ERM Recommendations ....................................................................................................................................... 115 Appendix 9 Register of relevant Indian Legislation ................................................................................................................. 122 Appendix 10 Detailed analysis of the refinery’s Environmental Performance ........................................................................... 125 2 About this report Vedanta Aluminium Ltd has set up and is operating a 1 million ton alumina refinery at Lanjigarh, in the district of Kalahandi, Odisha State, India, based on a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with the Government of Odisha. Up to 150 million tons of bauxite for