BHUBANESWAR: Civil rights activists on Sunday issued a declaration seeking a comprehensive White Paper on the state’s natural resources, detailing how much has been depleted and how much remains.

Organising a ‘Lok Adhikar Samabesh’ in the city under the banner of Lok Shakti Abhiyan, the National Alliance of People’s Movements and the Centre for Climate Justice, to protest handing over of the natural resources to corporate exploitation in the name of development, they also demanded restriction on grant of new mining lease to protect the natural resources of the state.

Environment activist and Lok Shakti Abhiyan leader Prafulla Samantara, National Alliance of People’s Movements convenor Narendra Mohanty and others said the state should not be rendered resource-poor by the reckless exploitation of natural resources that destroys nature along with environment and livelihood of the people.

They also demanded that no new mining lease be granted and all political parties deliberate on how illegal, unscientific and excessive mining can be stopped. Use of limited resources should be promoted for the basic needs of the current and future generations, they said.

The Economic Survey indicates that the state’s bauxite resources could be exhausted in the next 50 years. However, the scale in which these resources are being exploited, it may exhaust in the next 30 years, Samantara said.