Questioning the decision of the state government to provide long term linkage of 70 per cent of bauxite, resort to e-auction for 30 per cent reserve at Kodingamali and Karlapat, former union minister and Congress leader Srikant Jena on Monday said it was all tailormade to serve Anil Agrawal and his Vedanta company.
Look at the sequence and timing of the decision which in itself tells a tale , said Jena while pointing out that Anil Agrawal had announced at Davos that he will explore two bauxite mines in Odisha. The Odisha cabinet subsequently on 21 February takes a decision on long term linkage and e-auction of bauxite, he noted.
Both the BJD and BJP were clearly working in tandem to help Vedanta group, he alleged while adding how could Mr Anil Agarwal say months prior to the cabinet meeting that he will explore two bauxite mines. Jena alleged that the company had funded the campaign in the recently held Bijepur bypoll which took place on 24 February.
The state cabinet on 21 February decided to dereserve and auction a part of Karlapat bauxite block and the Kodingamadi bauxite. It also decided to amend the long-term linkage policy to make 70 per cent of the saleable stock of the Bauxite available for long-term linkage and the balance 30 per cent stock to be sold through national e-auction.
Mr Jena said since NALCO and Hindalco of Aditya Birla group have their own captive bauxite mines except Vedant there would be no one to participate in the auction and the price would be decided by Vedant.
There are two other possible bidders based in Visag but the price will be dictated by VAL, he alleged. He said at present Vedant is importing bauxite at the rate of Rs 5,000 per ton from other countries and at the rate of Rs 3,000 per ton from Gujarat since it is low grade bauxite.
The state will stand to lose Rs 3,000 per ton bauxite as the price fixed on the basis of e-auction willl not be more than Rs 600 per ton, he said. He demanded the state government to cancel the•cabinet decision in the larger interest of the state Jena said VAL should buy bauxite from OMC at prevailing market rate.