Trouble continues to plague Vedanta Aluminium Limited's project at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district.

Protesting against their disengagement, thousands of contractual laborers went berserk on Tuesday night and caused extensive damage to the company's power plant and administrative office.

The laborers were working at the VAL facility through Larsen and Toubro. Following VAL's move to stop factory expansion after the centre's orders, the laborers had been negotiating with officials throughout the day.

Officials claimed property worth about INR 1 crore had been damaged. About 20 laborers also sustained injuries, police said.

The 1 million tonne alumina refinery is caught in a controversy for the past few weeks with the Centre following recommendations of a committee headed by Mr NC Saxena deciding to temporarily withdraw its forest and environment clearance to VAL's bid to mine bauxite from Niyamgiri Hills. The latest incident started around 11 pm on Tuesday, when a mob of around 4,000 laborers went on the rampage and caused massive damage on the company's premises.


(Sourced from Times of India)