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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Divided Posco panel's report today by Nitin Sethi

Divided Posco panel's report today by Nitin Sethi

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published Published on Oct 18, 2010   modified Modified on Oct 18, 2010

The four-member review committee on Posco  will submit its report to the environment and forests ministry on Monday but it has already got mired in controversy with the chair of the panel, ex-environment secretary Meena Gupta, expected to give a dissent note while the other members provide a unanimous majority version.

The fact that the chair of the committee was the senior-most bureaucrat in MoEF when environmental clearance was given to the Rs 50,000 crore integrated steel plant in Orissa has led to speculation about the way the report will go.

The committee, besides reviewing infringements of forest clearance regulations and Forest Rights Act, was also mandated to ascertain whether the environment clearance given during Gupta's tenure was clean.

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh is expected to take a quick call on the matter under the watchful eye of the PMO before Manmohan Singh goes to South Korea for the G20 summit starting November 11.

With sources in the ministry suggesting that the majority report is expected to point to several deficiencies in environmental and forest clearances given to the South Korean steel major, this would be a test of the UPA's pro-environment credentials.

The orders against Vedanta Aluminium, besides being based on solid evidence, was politically convenient with even Rahul Gandhi swooping down to take credit for the government's pro-tribal stance. Posco is a tad tougher with the PMO also weighing in with its own considerations beyond the legal infringements of domestic green laws.

The report is expected to point out that the South Korean steel giant and the state government had not adhered to regulations while processing the environmental impact assessment report and the coastal zone regulations.

The key area of difference between the chair and the three members are expected on the adherence to Forest Rights Act while dealing with land acquisition. The committee was to decide if the state government had identified and settled the rights of forest dwellers at the project site before moving ahead with land acquisition. Crucially for Posco, the committee is also expected to recommend if the forest clearance given under the Forest Conservation Act is bad in law because the Forest Rights Act was infringed.

The MoEF had earlier made it clear that forest clearances would only be given once forest rights had been duly settled. With the four-member committee divided 3:1 whether the clearances should be withdrawn or not, the ball might be back in Ramesh's court on Monday to take a final decision.

The Times of India, 18 October, 2010, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Divided-Posco-panels-report-today/articleshow/6766243.cms


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