Withdraw Prohibitory Order and Stop all Repressive Measures – Stop Land Acquisition Process for Sijimali Bauxite Project

10/06/2025

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We, the undersigned, are deeply disturbed by the incident of 5 June, World Environment Day, in the district of Rayagada. On that day, Rayagada police detained well known environmentalist Medha Patkar, farmer leaders Lingaraj and Hara Bania and human rights activist Narendra Mohanty at the Rayagada railway station early in the morning and didn’t allow them to proceed to Sunger, a village in Kashipur Block. They had come as invited guests to participate in a public meeting orgainsed by Maa Maati Mali Surakshya Manch, an organization spearheading the movement against Vedanta’s Siji Mali Bauxite project, to celebrate the World Environment Day. Later the police forcefully sent the team back to Berhampur with police custody. Further, it was revealed that the district magistrate of Rayagada had issued an ex parte prohibitory order the previous day, i.e., 4 June, under Section 163 (3) of BNSS barring 24 persons from entering the district for a period of two months, without giving them an opportunity to explain their position. The order says, ‘their movement and presence in the district may lead to deterioration of law and order, disturb public peace and hinder the smooth conduct of administrative affairs and development process in the district’.

This kind of arbitrary behaviour of the Rayagada district administration is not new. In 2023, Sri Prafulla Samantara, a well known environmentalist, was abducted by the Rayagada police, who came in plain clothes and forcibly picked him up from a hotel in Rayagada and sent him back to his home town Berhampur, blindfolded and with his hands tied down. What is new, and a warning signal, is that this time the district collector has blatantly misused a legal provision as a tool infringing upon the citizens’ fundamental right of free movement and the right to assemble – rights that are constitutionally guaranteed.

That the maintenance of ‘law and order’ is not even a pretense becomes clear when one peruses the list of names that the prohibitory order contains. For instance, the list has the name of Shri Sunanda Jhodia, an IRS officer, currently posted in Assam. How such a high ranking public servant can be a threat to ‘public peace’ in far away Rayagada district of Odisha? The list has names of several people who are domiciles of the Rayagada district itself which implies that they would be externed from the district. It needs to be noted that under 163 of the BNSS a district magistrate has no jurisdiction of externment, and therefore, cannot prohibit a permanent resident from residing in his/her native place.

The real motive behind the district administration’s highhandedness can be seen in the context of the State Government’s push for various mining projects in south Odisha and people’s resistance to it in general and Maa Maati Mali Surakshya Manch’s opposition to Vedanta’s Siji Mali Bauxite Project in particular. People have been opposing mining projects for protection of livelihood and ecologies in places like Serubandha, Maliparbat, Nandapur. They are also exposing the blatant violations of various laws of the land like FRA, PESA. Since mid-2023, people of the Siji Mali area have expressed their concerns regarding bauxite mining in every available forum, formal or informal, available to them. In all the public hearings conducted in the area they have said a clear NO to the mining project. They have petitioned to the Governor of Odisha urging him to intervene exercising his special power in the governance of Schedule-V areas. They have written to the President of India, hoping that an Adivasi as President of the republic would be sympathetic to their cause. They have also approached different authorities, including the district administration, about the fake Gramsabhas which were conducted for clearance of the project in Scheduled areas. Nothing has worked. On the other hand, they have been subjected to harassment and repression by the police. There are about twenty fabricated criminal cases implicating hundreds of people. People are being arrested on a regular basis and put in jail for months together. More often than not, bail is denied at the lower courts and people have to approach the High Court for bail.

In this atmosphere of harassment and intimidation, the state government served notices on people on 23 May and 6 May for acquisition of both private and common land in Tijmali village for the proposed bauxite mining project of Vedanta. In pursuance of this, since 31 May government officials with police forces were trying to enter the proposed mining area. This resulted in confrontations with the activists of the Manch at several places. Following this on 3 June a Manch leader, Jaleswar Naik, was picked up by the police, allegedly tortured and then arrested. Next day on 4 June, about 150 villagers including women, while coming to the Kashipur Thana to inquire about him, the police stopped them on the way. Confrontation ensued. When police tried to pick up a few more persons from there, women resisted, got severely beaten up and many were injured. Police arrested Ramakanta Naik and Sundarsingh Majhi. Allegedly, both the arrested persons have been tortured by the police before sending them to judicial custody. Prohibitory order was issued in the area in the evening of 4 June, police vehicle going to villages and announcing that people cannot assemble, effectively preventing people from attending the scheduled meeting next day in which Medha Patkar and other activists from the state were to participate in the observance of the World Environment Day. It may be noted here that the mandatory forest clearance has not yet been granted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change for Vedanta’s proposed project.

We, therefore, are of the opinion that all such undemocratic acts, including the prohibitory order, are meant to benefit the corporate houses like Vedanta. We have strong reasons to believe that such mining projects in the Scheduled areas will not only adversely affect the lives and livelihood of the local communities but also it will damage the larger ecosystem.

We demand that,

the prohibitory order issued by the Rayagada district collector be immediately withdrawn;
restore the fundamental rights of citizens to move freely and assemble peacefully, hold public meetings, demonstrations and processions, to express their views fearlessly on any matter that concerns them;
put an end to the repressive measures including intimidation and arresting of people in Siji Mali area;
withdraw all criminal cases pending against people opposing the mining project in the area;
put on hold all processes initiated for the proposed mining project;
create a democratic space and dialogue with the local people’s organization to address the genuine concerns of affected people, and
review all the mining projects of the state in the light of protection and conservation of ecologies and livelihoods of people.