Sterlite Energy Ltd (SEL), a Vedanta group firm, has so far paid Rs 33.6 crore to the state Environment Management Fund in two tranches.

It deposited Rs 19.22 crore in August for the previous year charges and recently submitted a demand draft of Rs 14.39 crore towards the fund for the six month period between April to October 2012. According to the government policy, the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) must have to contribute six paise per unit every year to the fund for the power sold outside the state. The fund will act as an agency to reduce the carbon emission in the state.

In a bid to find alternate source of bauxite for the Lanjigarh alumina refinery of the Vedanta Alumininium Ltd (VAL), which is shut down for want of raw material since December 5, Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) has decided to apply for mining lease of Karlapat bauxite deposits soon.

OMC had entered into a Mou with VAL for supply of bauxite from its Niyamgiri mines in Kalahandi district, but the plan was derailed by persistent protests by tribal community and green activists, finally leading to the cancellation of forest clearance for the mining activity by Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) in August 2010.

The Odisha government has approved a proposal for withdrawal of land acquisition process for Sterlite Iron and Steel Company, a Vedanta group firm, which proposed to set up of a 5 million tonne steel plant in Keonjhar district.

The government has directed the revenue department to take appropriate action in this regard. “The government, after careful consideration, has been pleased to accept the land surrender proposal. You are therefore, requested to take action as per rules/act in vogue,” the state steel and mines department wrote to the deputy revenue secretary.

Early this month, billionaire Anil Agarwal-promoted Vedanta Group was forced to shut its one million tonnes per annum alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Odisha’s Kalahandi district due to unavailability of bauxite, 15 years after state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation signed over its rights to mine bauxite in the Niyamgiri Hills to the group firm.

The group has invested Rs 30,000 crore in six years to set up the aluminium business under Vedanta Aluminium, believing it would be able to get approvals for captive bauxite mines by the time the facilities get commissioned. Eventually, it commissioned a 1 mtpa refiner, a 0.5 mtpa smelter and a 1,215 Mw captive power plant, but approval for bauxite mining did not come.

‘The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay recovery of entry tax dues amounting to more than R350 crore, payable on goods imported by companies for their plants and services in Orissa between 2008 and 2012. Companies including Vedanta Aluminium and Tata Steel have been slapped notices over these dues.

A bench headed by Justice HL Dattu, while issuing notice to the state government, refused to grant interim stay against the Orissa High Court’s order that upheld the state’s decision to tax the import of capital goods under the provisions of the Orissa Entry Tax Rules, 1999. However, the state government said it will not take any coercive action against the firms.

Any dilution of the rules under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, as being contemplated at the highest levels of the government, could lead to adverse impact in the ongoing Supreme Court case on UPA's d

After the shutdown of Vedanta Aluminium's one-million tonne alumina refinery at Lanjigarh on December 5, the Odisha government seems to have woken up, albeit belatedly, to the raw material crisis that has stalked the company for last five years.

In a bid to help revive operations of the Lanjigarh refinery, the steel & mines department has started the process of identifying prospected bauxite deposits where mining operations can commence with the statutory clearances.

Vedanta Alumina Limited (VAL), on Wednesday, shut down its alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Odisha’s Kalahandi district, and stopped feeding bauxites and started washing its tanks.

After Vedanta closed its aluminum refinery at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district of Odisha today, citing paucity of bauxite, the primary raw material to refine aluminium, all eyes are now on the Supre