KASARGOD: The people’s committee in Kinanoor and Karinthalam panchayat observed a black day on Tuesday in protest against the mining in these areas. The black day comes a few days ahead of the public hearing on the issue to be held on Saturday. According to environmentalists, the public hearing is an ‘understanding between the mining firm as well as the officials'. The people’s committee has demanded that the public hearing should be discarded and the mining firm should not be allowed to function in the area.
They also said that they would block the public hearing expected to be held at Neeleshwaram. Since the hearing is outside the borders of the panchayat, they will try to rope in the support of those outside also. However, the mining firm had already welcomed the High Court direction for public hearing in Kadaladippara for the mining. The company said that it was hopeful about the project and was waiting for the opinion of Revenue Minister E. Chandrasekharan as well as the CPM.
The land survey and mining were stopped due to people's protests in the area, but the firm still feels that once the Environment Impact Assessment study gives them a clean chit and once the public hearing also turns positive for them, they would be able to go ahead. They had earlier requested the Central ministry of environment forest and climate change to extend the validity of the terms of reference of mining leases for bauxite and aluminous laterite in Kinalur for 18 months
