Church of England sells Vedanta shares on rights issue in India
(February 08, 2010) Two funding bodies of the Church of England have said they have
sold their shares in the mining firm Vedanta, worth a total of $6.7 million, because
of objections to some of the company’s operations against human rights in India.
The Church Commissioners and the Church of England Pensions Board said they acted
on the advice of the church's Ethical Investment Advisory Group, which expressed concerns
about Vedanta's alumina refinery in Lanjigarh and a planned bauxite mine in the Niyamgiri
hills, both in Orissa state. The Church said that after six months of talks with
Vedanta they were not satisfied that the firm has shown, or is likely in future to
show, the level of respect for human rights and local communities. Human rights
campaigners said that the lives of indigenous people were threatened by the mining
project. The decision has been welcomed by Survival International (SI) which has
been lobbying the church to disinvest from Vedanta for more than a year. SI says
that the bauxite mine will destroy a large part of the Niyamgiri Mountain in Orissa,
damaging the lives of Kondh tribes people who live in the area.