States » EastPosted at: Oct 2 2026 8:55PM


BJD calls Dharmendra’s claims on bauxite allocation under Naveen govt misleading, motivated

Bhubaneswar, Oct 2 (UNI) The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Friday alleged that former union Minister and Sambalpur MP Dharmendra Pradhan’s remarks on bauxite allocation during the previous Naveen Patnaik government were misleading and politically motivated.
Addressing a press conference at the BJD headquarters here, MLA and senior media coordinator Gautam Buddha Das and media coordinator Lenin Mohanty said the Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) had cancelled the 2004 and 2009 joint venture agreements with the private company in September 2015 following amendments to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act.
They said the Orissa High Court, in its October 1 judgment, had also noted that the agreements had been terminated and had attained finality as the concerned company had not challenged the cancellation at that time.
The court subsequently dismissed the company's plea seeking revival of the earlier arrangement and upheld the present mechanism for computing the average sale price of bauxite.
Das said the 2004 agreement between OMC and the private company provided for supply of 150 million tonnes of bauxite. However, following changes in the statutory framework, OMC cancelled the joint venture agreements in September 2015.
He said a fresh arrangement for bauxite supply was subsequently introduced and, under the Long Term Linkage Policy, OMC and the company entered into a long-term linkage sale agreement in 2018.
Following an amendment to Rule 45 of the Mineral Concession Rules in 2019, OMC changed its bauxite pricing mechanism, leading to a dispute over computation of the average sale price.
Das said the dispute over the pricing mechanism also arose during the tenure of the Naveen Patnaik government. In 2023, OMC rejected the company's demand to restore the earlier pricing formula, following which the company approached the High Court.
The High Court had granted interim protection to the company on March 29, 2023, allowing it to lift bauxite at an interim price subject to adjustment against the final price determined under the applicable rules.
However, in its judgment delivered on October 1, 2026, the division bench of Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Murahari Sri Raman dismissed the writ petition and vacated the interim orders.
The court held that the company could not seek revival or indirect enforcement of agreements that had already been terminated. It also held that OMC was justified in computing the average sale price in accordance with the provisions of Section 17-A of the MMDR Act and Rule 45 of the Mineral Concession Rules, 2016.
Das said it was therefore necessary to distinguish between the different stages of the dispute. While the original agreement was executed in 2004 during the Naveen Patnaik government, the agreement was cancelled by OMC in 2015, the pricing mechanism was changed in 2019 and the company's demand for restoration of the earlier pricing formula was rejected in 2023 — all during the previous government.
Mohanty alleged that Pradhan's claim that Naveen Patnaik had written to the Centre seeking reduction of the conversion factor to facilitate implementation of the minimum price demanded by the private company was false.
He said the Aluminium Industries Association of India had submitted a memorandum to the union Ministry of Mines in 2020, pointing out what it described as technical issues in the Average Sale Price (ASP) formula. Based on this, the then Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had written to the Centre seeking correction of the issue in the interest of Odisha, Mohanty claimed.
He added that the then Gujarat government had also written to the union Ministry of Mines on the same issue. Subsequently, the Centre constituted a committee and made necessary changes to the ASP formula, he said.
The BJD leaders said the October 1 High Court judgment should be viewed in the context of the entire sequence of decisions rather than as a fresh action taken solely by the present Mohan Charan Majhi government against the company.
The High Court judgment records that Vedanta had sought to revive the terms of the October 2004 agreement and challenged the pricing mechanism adopted by OMC. The court ultimately dismissed the petition and permitted the authorities to take follow-up action in accordance with law.
UNI DP
Tags: #BJD calls Dharmendra’s claims on bauxite allocation under Naveen govt misleading# motivated
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