Major Scottish fund dumps Vedanta stock over Orissa bauxite mining controversy

Major Scottish investment fund Martin Currie Investment has sold its £2.3 million (US$4.29 million) worth of shares in Vedanta because of its controversial Orissa bauxite mining project. The UK human rights NGO Survival International is trying to block Vedanta's Sterlite Industries from mining bauxite at Lanjigarh in the Kalahandi District of Orissa. Scott White, director of corporate communications at Martin Currie, confirmed to The Scotsman newspaper that it has sold its Vedanta shares. "It is fundamental that we expect companies to behave both within the law and morally." White said a detailed list of questions was sent to Vedanta, which responded, while the fund also spoke to Survival International. "The doubts over the issues with the bauxite project ... led to exiting the stock," he told the Scotsman. The anti-Orissa bauxite mine NGOs have written to governments internationally as well as companies such as Alliance Trust, Barclays Bank, HSBC, Abbey National and Standard Life asking them to sell their Vedanta shares. They have also contacted several Scottish universities through the Universities Superannuation Scheme, which has more than a million shares in Vedanta, believed to be worth £18 million. Bryan Johnston, the director of Bell Lawrie investment stock brokers in Edinburgh, told The Scotsman, "Without a shadow of a doubt, campaigns such as Survival International have an effect-Shell came under pressure in Nigeria and mining firm Rio Tinto, in particular, in Papua New Guinea." "Most companies care deeply about their image and are aware of their duties to the environment and people who are affected by their decisions," he said. "But what is not fully understood is that someone working in an Indian sweatshop making footballs might value the work as the only source of income for their family. One has to respect different cultures." A Vedanta spokesman said he could not comment on Martin Currie's withdrawal, but insisted there has been no displacement of indigenous people, as Survival International claims. India's Supreme Court has allowed Sterlite to proceed with the bauxite mine, which will provide product for the new $800 million Lanjigarh alumina refinery that Sterlite has built in the Niyamgiri Mountains. The Dongira Kondh tribe lives at the base of the Niyamgiri Hills in Orissa where the mine will be located, and has fought the project, claiming it will destroy a large portion of forest land and turn their most sacred site into a wasteland. They claim the mountain is home to their god Niyamraja. --Mineweb