faking happiness | kracktivist

Vedanta- Social Media Campaign ‘ Khushi’ – Faking Happiness #CSR

Kamayani Bali Mahabal- April 17,2013 for Faking Happiness Campaign

Vedanta Resources plc is a London listed FTSE100 company which has brought death and destruction to thousands. 63% of it is owned by billionaire Anil Agarwal and his family through companies in various tax havens. It has been consistently fought by people’s movements but it is being helped by the British government to evolve into a multi-headed monster and spread across India and round the world, diversifying into iron ore in Goa, Karnataka and Liberia, Zinc in Rajasthan, Namibia, South Africa and Ireland, copper in Zambia and most recently oil in the ecologically fragile Mannar region in Sri Lanka.

Vedanta’s Record in India:

In Odisha, India:

Vedanta’s bauxite mining and aluminium smelters have left more than tenthousand displaced people landless, contaminated drinking water sources with ‘red mud’ and fly ash,and devastated vast tracts of fertile land in an area which has seen famine every year since 2007.Vedanta’s mine on the sacred Niyamgiri hills has been fought by Adivasi (indigenous)-led people’smovements for seven long years and has so far been stopped. This has rendered their subsidiaryVedanta Aluminium (VAL) a loss making company, starving it’s refineries at Jharsuguda and Lanjigarhof local bauxite.

In Goa:

Vedanta’s Sesa Goa subsidiary has been accused of large scale fraud and illegal mining.In June 2009 following a pit wall collapse which drowned Advalpal village in toxic mine waste, a 9year old local boy Akaash Naik filed a petition to stop the mine and mass protests later that yearhalted mining at one of Sesa Goa’s sites. In 2011 there were more major mine waste floods. In SouthGoa a 90 day road blockade by 400 villagers succeeded in stopping another iron ore mine. Sesa Goaare paying ‘silence funds’ to try and prevent similar action at their South Goa mine.

In Tamil Nadu, Tuticorin:

Vedanta subsidiary Sterlite has flouted laws without remorse, operatingand expanding without consent, violating environmental conditions, and illegally dumping toxiceffluents and waste. In 1997 a toxic gas leak hospitalised 100 people sparking an indefinite hungerstrike by a local politician and a ‘siege on Sterlite’ that led to 1643 arrests. Later that year a kilnexplosion killed two. An estimated 16 workers died between 2007 and 2011. Police recorded mostworkers deaths as suicides. Pollution Control Boards, judges and expert teams have on severaloccasions reversed damning judgements of the company, demonstrating large scale corruption andbribery. Activists are waging a court battle which has stopped operations for several short periods.

In Tamil Nadu, Mettur:

Vedanta bought MALCO ‘s aluminium complex at Mettur 2 yearsbefore permission for their Kolli Hills bauxite mines expired but continued to mine illegally for 10years. Five adivasi villages were disturbed and a sacred grove destroyed before activist’s petitionsstopped mining in 2008. Without local bauxite and with protests preventing bauxite coming fromNiyamgiri in Orissa the factory at Mettur was also forced to close. However, the abandoned andunreclaimed mines continue to pollute the mountains and a huge red mud dump by the Stanleyreservoir pollutes drinking water and blows toxic dust into the village.

In Chhattisgarh, Korba:

Vedanta bought the state owned BALCO’s alumina refinery, smelter andbauxite mines for ten times less than its estimated value in 2001 despite a landmark 61 day strike byworkers. Since then wages have been slashed and unionised workers are losing jobs. In 2009 afactory chimney collapsed, BALCO claimed 42 were killed, but in fact 60 – 100 people are stillmissing. Witnesses claim these workers from poor families in neighbouring states are buriedunderground in the rubble, which was bulldozed over immediately after the collapse

British Government’s special relationship with Vedanta

• The UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) and Department of Tradeand Industry (DTI) helped launch Vedanta on the London Stock Exchange andcontinues to support the company.
• Through the World Bank funded NGO Business Partners for Development, it hashelped Vedanta take over copper mines in Zambia . Although Vedanta has been finedfor poisoning the Kafue river and faced workers protests, the UK is helpingestablish it in Zambia by securing in the words of local NGOs “ a ‘champion’ withincentral government to further the ‘enabling environment’”.
• Meanwhile in Liberia in what has been described as one of the worst recordedconcession agreements in the country’s history Sesa Goa is accused of breach ofcontract and may have to pay damages of US$10 billion.
• Most recently when the Indian government held up Vedanta’s deal with EdinburghbasedCairn Energy by investigating Vedanta’s ability to manage strategic oil fields, UKgovernment officials, briefed “over dinner” by Cairn Energy, offered to “polish” and senda letter drafted by the company to the Indian Prime Minister to force the deal through.David Cameron even personally intervened, urging India to speed up’unnecessary delays’. As a result the Indian government caved in and allowed a dealwhich handed some 30% of India’s crude oil for a fraction of its worth to this notoriouscorporate.
• Vedanta’s Cairn India is now drilling for oil in the ecologically fragile off-shoreregion around Mannar in Sri Lanka – an area controlled by the Sri Lankan military.

Vedanta Resources, is attempting to claim to be social responsible via a huge advertising campaign. The latest is the social media campaign, ‘Khushi’, aimed at underprivileged children, is poised to complete one year. Launched on April 10, 2012. In this video we attack all tall claims of Vedanta Khushi Campaign.

The Reality is –

Vedanta has suffocated the life of Adivasis in Niyamgiri foothills. The entire area is overlapped with Red Mud. Most of humans, animals, birds and insects are infected with skin diseases. Proper medical facilities are unavailable; there is no sign of hospital. By pressures, by vicious means, by force, by paying less, Vedanta bought the farming and forest land of Local tribes. They cheated them by providing technical training to make them skillful workers in Vedanta Mines and factories, as soon as land got transferred, Vedanta thrown them out.

Red mud has converted all crop fields and forest into waste land, the vein is spreading. The river Vasamdhara is the main source of water for all constituents of habitats in Niyamgiri. Vedanta’s Red Mud resulted in converting drinkable water of Vasamdhara to polluted and toxic waste; it is causing dangerous skin diseases and cancer. Even Animals and birds are rejecting it to drink. The situation of Vasamdhara is same from Niyamgiri till Kalingapatnam. Amnesty International broke this harsh truth.

Niyamgiri foothills is a treasure of bauxite, Bauxite is a main component to make aluminum. According to statistic, Niyamgiri foothills contain 72 lakh million ton of bauxite. The average cost of 1 ton bauxite is approx 6500 INR, whereas all 72 lakh million ton is not awarded to Vedanta for mining. The prices are fixed very little, when Government awards a license to mine, it is simple to understand the covetous intentions of Vedanta by looking at the history and biology of Vedanta.

Government and Vedanta has fixed the price of Niyamgiri foothills, the predators have camped and pasted like a woodworm. Vedanta Aluminum Ltd is camped with crooked intentions in Laljiganj located at south Odisha . A fake kingdom of 700 Hectares expanded by cheating legally and eating illegally, hooks or crook they used every evil outfit.

Village Bundela initiated the revolution against Vedanta few years back, many voices were raised, and dozens of revolutionaries are martyred. There are few Tribal’s if they further replaced from this areas, they will lose their name from World map. They are already on the way of extinction because of Vedanta what a Price tag we have placed on forest and tribes in this materialistic world. We are the silent observer of slaughter of Humanity.

JOIN US FAKING HAPPINESS CAMPAIGN

https://www.facebook.com/groups/fakinghappiness/

Inside report from the Supreme Court Niyamgiri case against #Vedanta #mustread #mustshare (kractivist.wordpress.com)
Vedanta nudges Odisha again for bauxite supply (kractivist.wordpress.com)
Vedanta-Sterlite – Dangerous by Design #CSR #Humanrightsviolations (kractivist.wordpress.com)

Vedanta loses British safety awards after Indian fatality #Vownews #Faking Happiness

The suspension of the awards was sparked by a letter from campaigners linked to the London Mining Network

Simon Bowers
guardian.co.uk, Monday 14 May 2012 21.01 BST

A worker leaves the Vedanta company's Lanjigarh alumina refinery

A worker leaving Vedanta’s Lanjigarh alumina refinery in Orissa state, India. Photograph Gethin Chamberlain

Multinational mining group Vedanta Resources has had two British safety awards – including one endorsed by the UK’s Health and Safety Executive – suspended after campaigners drew attention to controversies including a fatality at the group’s operations in Orissa, India.

The British Safety Council had been due to present representatives from a subsidiary, Vedanta Aluminium, with a “distinction” award for its Lanjigarh refinery at a black-tie gala dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Mayfair on Friday night. An invitation to the event, described by organisers as “the Oscars of health and safety”, has now been withdrawn.

In a statement, BSC said: “Information has been brought to [our] attention concerning a fatality at the site in April and in connection with earlier occurrences … The BSC has today notified the company of its decision and sought full particulars of the circumstances surrounding the fatal accident and dangerous occurrences.”

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has also suspended a “silver award” that was due to be presented to Mukesh Kumar, president of Vedanta Aluminium, at a ceremony in Birmingham.

The suspension of the awards was sparked by a letter from campaigners linked to the London Mining Network. It comes two years after the BSCstripped another Vedanta subsidiary of a safety award after the Observer drew its attention to the firm’s involvement in one of the worst industrial tragedies in India’s recent history. At least 40 workers were said to have been killed by the collapse of a 240-metre, part-built chimney in Korba, in the state of Chhattisgarh.

On both occasions, information passed to the BSC was widely available on the internet.

Last month, a project manager at a Vedanta contractor firm reportedly burned to death and four others received minor injuriesin a fire while staying on a Vedanta campus site in Lanjigarh. Kumar told local media: “The project manager of our red mud refining agency died during the fire accident. I cannot call it lapse in the security measures as I believe the rains and possibly a loose electric wire caused the accident.”

Vedanta reported two fatalities among its employees and 24 contractor deaths across its businesses and projects for the year to 31 March. “Learnings have now been shared across the group and preventative action taken,” it said in its annual report.

The BSC allows firms applying for its international safety awards to assess themselves. They are barred from receiving an award if there is a fatality at the site in question. In the case of Vedanta’s Lanjigarh aluminium refinery, the fatality occurred after the application had been processed, but the BSC had not been informed. Critics of Vedanta’s practices at Lanjigarh also point to allegations of two caustic residue spills – accusations the BSC is taking seriously.

A spokesman for Vedanta said officials in India could not be reached for comment.

Roger Moody, of the London Mining Network, said: “The process of self-assessment should not be allowed for these awards. Gong-giving is quite an art in India and Vedanta are past masters at trading off these kinds of awards. The fact that they are endorsed by the official British regulator is seen as very, very significant.”

A spokesman for the HSE confirmed that the BSC awards did carry a general endorsement, but added: “We are not involved in the detail of the selection process, or judging the winners.”