The Pioneer, Dec 16, 2010
PNS | BHUBANESWAR
The two different yardsticks for approval of industrial project by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has been evident from its recent decisions for industrial projects in Odisha and Chhattisgarh.
It has given environment clearance (EC) for the Jindal Power Limited (JPL) for putting up 4x600 MW Power Plant at Tamnar in Gharghoda Tehsil in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh.
As per sources, the TOR for the project was withdrawn earlier under Section 5 of the Environmental Protection Act for violation of the EIA Notification-2006.
On the other hand, the MoEF has stopped several mega industrial projects in Odisha, including the Vedanta and Posco. The JPL, in Chhattisgarh, was in news when the MoEF realised that the 2,400 MW project cannot be installed just in 62 Ha of land based on which the TOR was cleared in March 2009 against the normal requirement for such a mega project to the tune of around 1,000 Ha.
The project authority has gone beyond this and started construction on a site for which no land acquisition took place and the site was totally different from that shown in the TOR. On receipt of a complaint from an NGO that the project construction had started without the EC on a different site for which no Public Hearing had been conducted, the MoEF was forced to withdraw the TOR on June 18, 2010 for violation of the EIA Notification-2006 and for starting the construction without obtaining the Prior Environmental Clearance. The JPL had also not informed the MoEF about the relocation of the project to another site.
In a dramatic turn, the JPL case was again put up in the EAC meeting at the MoEF within one month of the withdrawal of TOR for grant of EC on August 9 where the JPL had accepted its mistakes and revised the land use pattern besides giving justification for various issues raised by the NGO as well as the environmental experts. The MoEF has even ignored the observation of Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation (CMDC) that, the proposed site is a coal bearing area and instead accepted the justification of the JPL that approval for locating the plant in the coal bearing area shall be taken from the Ministry of Coal in due course of time. Since no land was available, it was made to understand that the coal storage area, requiring around 250 acres of land, will be located at a distance of 30 km from the plant and the land requirement for ash pond was limited to just four-year requirement by stating that all ash will be 100 per cent utilised after four years.
It is further reported that the coal transfer will be through a pipe conveyor for which permission of the right of way shall be obtained in due course of time as no land has been acquired or available. Since, the pipe conveyor also has physical structure, it can be installed only by acquiring land and not by obtaining the right of way.
As, the MoEF was hell bent on clearing the project, all aspects have been overlooked and finally the Environmental Clearance has been granted in the meeting of October restoring the original TOR, sources confided.
However, the ministry has stopped several projects in Odisha, such as Vedanta Aluminium Limited in Kalahandi and Posco-India in Jagatsinghpur.
The clearance of such a mega project in Chhattisgarh clearly shows the type of transparency being maintained by the MoEF. It also shows that the MoEF shows two different approaches for clearance of projects in Odisha and Chhattisgarh, it is alleged.
No comments:
Post a Comment