Over a dozen Adivasis hurt in clash with police outside venue of public hearing on Vedanta zinc plant in Tapi

Over a dozen Adivasis, including a woman, were injured when police resorted to lathi charge and burst teargas shells to disperse a huge gathering of protesting Adivasis from 91 villages today when they tried to block the Surat-Dhulia national highway against the holding of a public hearing on Vedanta’s proposed zinc smelter plant at Doswada of Sonegadh taluka in violation of the Covid-19 protocol and at a time when farmers were busy in their fields transplanting paddy.

The injured were admitted to hospitals in Surat and Vyara.

The Tapi district collector, who had organised the public hearing against the widespread opposition by the Adivasi farmers, was compelled to postpone the hearing after thousands of Adivasis of the villages in the neighbourhood of the proposed zinc smelter plant raised slogans against Vedanta. The slogan shouting continued for nearly an hour at the venue of the public hearing.

Over 5,000 Adivasis, including about 1,000 women, had gathered near the venue of the public hearing from early morning around 7 though the hearing was slated to start at 11 a.m. The government had erected a pre-fabricated dome with three compartments separated by canvas walls to conduct the hearing.

When this correspondent visited the site around 9.30 a.m., the police and the staff of Vedanta company had allowed about 100 persons, mostly women, inside the dome. They, along with a couple of videographers, were seated in the section near the stage on which the district collector and a representative of the Gujarat State Pollution Control Board were to be seated. Inquiries by this correspondent revealed that these women had been given sewing machine as part of the CSR of Vedanta Zinc.

The police and the security staff of Vedanta were asking names and addresses of everyone at the main entrance before allowing them to enter the dome.

After the leaders of Adivasi Panch and Adivasi Ekta Manch objected to the presence of a Vedanta representative occupying the front rows near the stage, the authorities allowed the entry of other villagers just about half an hour before the hearing was to begin.

Meanwhile, thousands of villagers waiting outside became restive, shouting slogans such as “Adivasi Ekta Zindabad”, “Ladenge jeetenge” and “Jungle, jameen paani hamara hai”.

After the authorities opened the main entrance to the convention dome, the villagers were asked to form two separate lines for men and women and allowed to enter one by one, each of them being frisked by the security staff who seized black ribbons from many of them. However, some women managed to conceal flexible placards made of paper sheets on which slogans like ‘Go back Vedanta’ were written.

As soon as the district collector arrived and was seated in the chair on the stage, these women started raising slogans against Vedanta’s zinc plant. Their slogan shouting continued all throughout for at least half an hour.

They took a break from slogan shouting when the leaders of Adivasi Panch and Adivasi Ekta Manch announced on the public address system that they did not want the public hearing to proceed today as it was being held during the paddy sowing season when the farmers would be busy in their fields. Yet, they said, the authorities had decided to hold the hearing.

To this, the district collector said that since he had taken note of the voice of opposition of the Adivasis and had also received many representations from them in writing, he is postponing the hearing.

While he was being chaperoned outside the venue by the Adivasi leaders to his vehicle, the youngsters in the crowd wanted the collector’s decision to postpone the hearing in writing. This led to a verbal duel between the Adivasi youth and the representatives of the district administration.

Some of the young Adivasis then decided to block the national highway across the venue. Hundreds of the protesters, including quite a large number of women, squatted on the highway. After they allowed an ambulance safe passage, the police told the squatters to vacate the road. The protesters stubbornly refused to do so.

The police then resorted to a lathi charge. On seeing a woman bleeding from the head as result of a lathi blow, the agitators began pelting stones at the police vehicles. The police claimed that a constable was hit by a flying stone. The police then burst several rounds of teargas shells even while raining lathi blows on the agitators.

The police arrested about a dozen Adivasis but not a single leader.