Union minister for environment and forest Jairam Ramesh on Saturday came down heavily on the Orissa government for messing up Posco-India’s 12 million tonne steel project.
“Where is the MoU with the Posco-India for the project?”, he said, adding, “I am being dubbed as anti-Orissa.? The memorandum of understanding with Posco-India has expired in June 2010, and the state government is yet to renew the MoU.
He said the state government has sought enviornment and forest clearance for the project and not iron ore mines. There should have been a comprehesive environment assessment for the project, which includes captive iron ore mines, Ramesh clarified.
Ramesh said the state government is yet to clarify on the implementation of the Right to Forest Act at the proposed site even though the MoEF had sought an assurance on the matter from the state government on January 31, 2011. The state government is still silent over the issue of Gram Sabha resolutions passed in the village of Dhinkia and Gobindpur that falls under the Posco-India’s project site.
Visbily upset with the ruling BJD’s campaign against him for his controversial decsions regarding Posco, Vedanta and Polavaram, Ramesh consiously punctuated his address with “I am not against Orissa”.
Asserting that he is not against the industrialisation of Orissa, the minister said, but the industrialisation should come adhering the laws of the land. “I am just trying to uphold the law of the land without prejudice, without politics and without partisan”, he added.
On the issue of Vedanta’s alumina expansion project and the Niyamgiri bauxite mines forest clearance, Ramesh said the matters are in the court and he would not comment on those.
Referring to the controversy over Jaitapur power plant, the minister said the clearnace has been given with a condition that the cumulative environemntal impact assessment(CEIA) has to be carried out in 60km radius zone in Ratnagiri district of Maharastra. In Ratnagiri district power plants with total capacity of 33,000 mw is coming up.
Stating that the MoEF is emphsising on CEIA, Ramesh said similar directives will be given to Orissa, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and Bhagirathi basin of Uttarakhand,where large number of thermal and hydel power projects are coming up.
Regarding the MoEF’s condition to accord “go” tag to the coal block alloted to ultra mega power project (UMPP) in Orissa, he said the ball is now in the court of the ministry of power (MoP). “This is a call to be taken up by the MoP”, he said.
The MoEF has put a conditon that that the coal blcok for UMPP’s project would be converted from “no go” to “go” area only if the Manoharpur and Dulunga coal blocks alloted to the 4,000 mw power plant of NTPC and the 1,320 mw power project of Orissa Power Generation Corporation (OPGC) is surrendered.
Two projects worth R50 cr for state
Environment minister Jairam Ramesh on Saturday announced two environment and wildlife projects worth R50 crore for Orissa. Ramesh said National Centre for Wetland & Coastal Ecosystem Studies would be established in Orissa with an investment of R40 crore. The Centre would come up in a split site at Bhubaneswar and Chilika. Similarly, a Centre for Marine Turtle & Bio-diversity Studies would be set up at a cost of R10 crore in the state.
