By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: Local people of Lapang in Sambalpur district of Odisha, now have started saying that Aditya Birla Group run Hindalco Industries and Aditya Aluminium have very smartly fooled Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and ensured foundation stone laying ceremony for their projects without having valid forest and environment clearances and without a public hearing by Odisha State Pollution Control Board.
Locals expressed surprised at CM Majhi’s ignorance on forest clearance issues and strongly condemned his active participation in foundation stone laying ceremony on January 27 this year. Such type of undue favour to a company, which subsidiaries like Essel Mining and Industries Ltd, prominently figured in Odisha mining scam and penalised for illegal mining and forest and environment law violations, raised many eyebrows.
This open nefarious act looks not possible without the active role of Industry Department and as well as Environment, Forest and Climate Change Department of Odisha Government and also Odisha State Pollution Control Board.
22 January 2026, Company applied for Public Hearing at Odisha State Pollution Control Board, on January 27, CM Mohan Charan Majhi did all these illegal activities. No public hearing yet means forest and environment clearance is pending, on which capacity Mohan Charan Majhi did it , it’s big question now and seems, blatant violation of laws by law makers himself. Company applied for forest and environment approval on 3 October 2025, and on 9 October 2025, term of references were issued. While without public hearing, CM Majhi joined foundation stone laying ceremony.
OSPCB is supposed to fixed a date for public hearing on request of company, district administration will provide logistics support, police security if required, local SP there, law says like this . Local says no public hearing held, it’s on record. When a TV Journalist approached Revenue Minister Suresh Pujari for his reaction, Minister ran away horridly by saying “ we will talk next time,”.
Subash Panigrahi , a local activist of Tapang demanded that CM Majhi shall order an investigation and said it was very unfortunate that such incident happening openly. Birendra Panigrahi, another resident, alleged that, it was open cheat by the company. ‘People’s Government dancing to the tune of private companies ignoring people’s interest, he said.
At a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi led Union Government taking several steps to check environment pollution here in Odisha, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi taking a lead as law violator and laid foundation stone for key projects of Hindalco Industries, Aditya Aluminium in Sambalpur without Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ministry and Department approval and as well as it happened without a public hearing that supposed to be conducted by statutory authority, Odisha State Pollution Control Board.
It may be noted that on January 27, this year, Odisha CM Majhi along with Industry Minister Sampad Swain, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari, Local MLA Jaya Narayan Mishra had joined the inauguration and foundation stone laying ceremony for key projects of Hindalco Industries at Lapanga, Sambalpur. ACS Industry, Home and Information and Public Relations Hemant Sharma and Sambalpur Collector were also present. Sambalpur Collector should have minimum knowledge on public hearing but he kept mum and joined the show.
Government claimed that these projects will boost industrial growth, generate employment, and strengthen Odisha’s journey towards inclusive and sustainable development. The project marks a major milestone for advanced manufacturing in Odisha, with a total investment of Rs 26,996 crore and employment potential of over 5,000—strengthening the state’s industrial ecosystem.
