BJP demands Patnaik’s resignation over Vedanta issue

ROURKELA - Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik should resign in the wake of the union environment ministry’s rejection of Vedanta’s bauxite mining project, Bharatiya Janata Party state president Jual Oram said Wednesday.

“The (environment) ministry has highlighted how the state government has gone out of the way to push the project violating all statutory laws,” Oram told reporters in steel city of Rourkela, 514 km from state capital Bhubaneswar.

“The chief minister himself is the forest and environment minister of the state,” he said.

“He has no moral right to remain in power after the central panel’s indictment of the government for compromising the interest of the tribals and the environment,” Oram, a former union Tribal Affairs minister, said.

Oram’s reaction came a day after union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh Tuesday formally rejected Vedanta’s bauxite mining project in the state, saying the decision was in favour of the poor tribal communities residing there.