industry

Activists protest at Adani Mining’s Australia site against water plan


Mumbai: Adani Group’s mining arm in Australian continues to face protests even after the group has claimed that it has met the job commitments for the project.

Early Thursday, a group of activists staged a protest at Adani’s Carmichael coal project’s rail corridor challenging the water use plan of the project that entails pumping water from the Suttor River. One of the protestors chained himself to the cattle grid along the road near the railway corridor attached to the project to stall work.

Adani Mining told ET that some anti-coal activists interfered with utility vehicles carrying workers to the railway construction site in Central Queensland; the employees were attacked and intimidated. The police later escorted activists who were blocking the road away including.

“The views of this small group of extremists don’t represent the views of the majority of Queenslanders, who just want to be able to get to work, to get on with doing their jobs, earn a living and help our economy recover from the COVID-19 recession,” Adani said in a response to an ET query.

The company said this was another instance of the ‘Stop Adani’ movement and Front Line Action on Coal against the project, citing it “anti-social” and “dangerous.”

“It is unacceptable that anti-coal activists are harassing our people and attempting to damage their vehicles as they are travelling to work.”

Adani denied reports that work at the site was disrupted.

In September, Adani had said that while the construction of the mine and rail is still underway, it has already delivered on its commitments to Queensland, by employing more than 1,500 people and awarding more than Aus $1.5 billion (around Rs 7,900 crore) in contracts on the Carmichael mine and rail Project.

The billionaire-Gautam Adani led project has faced protests and controversies for almost a decade on concerns that it could severely damage the Great Barrier Reef and can be a threat to some local species. But it found support from the Australian government given the job creation commitment of the project. After much delay, the construction of the Carmichael Project received the approvals that it needed to start the project in June last year. But the Adani group was dragged back to the court over its decision to pump Galilee Basin floodwater to its Carmichael coal mining project. The group aims to produce coal in 2021.





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