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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Members trash chairman’s dissent report on Posco

Members trash chairman’s dissent report on Posco

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published Published on Oct 20, 2010   modified Modified on Oct 20, 2010

The members of the Meena Gupta Committee , who argued for cancellation of clearances for the Posco project in Orissa, on Tuesday began to mount pressure on the government to accept their view.

Three members of the review panel — former director of the Forest Survey of India Devendra Pandey, civil rights activist and advocate V Suresh and tribal affairs expert Urmila Pingle — have submitted their response to the minority report submitted by panel chairperson and former environment secretary Meena Gupta. In a letter to environment minister Jairam Ramesh , the members have said that Ms Gupta’s dissent report is “not in accordance with law on a number of points.”

The minister had sensed this group’s intention to pile up pressure on the government on Monday itself and this prompted him to issue a gag order of sorts. If Tuesday’s development is anything to go by then the activist section in the panel is determined to provide ammunition to the anti-Posco lobby.

The three members have stressed that the two reports differ in approach, conclusions and substance. The three members have said that Ms Gupta’s recommendation of further environmental impact assessments without revoking the clearance as “untenable.” They argue that as per the law, an impact assessment “is not a private exchange between ministry and company but a basis for scrutiny by all authorities and the public.” The absence of a proper impact assessment report prior to the public hearing has been cited by the majority as suppression of facts and grounds for cancellation of clearance.

They have said that Ms Gupta’s recommendation to complete the process of implementing the Forest Rights Act within a time limit is a “contravention of the Forest Rights Rules and an usurpation of the legal powers of the gram sabha.” The three members said that “Ms Gupta also seeks to override the gram sabha's power to deny consent to forest diversion, imposing her own legal interpretation over that required by law and by the Ministry itself. Such actions would encourage further manipulation.” The majority report had recommended that in view of the improper implementation of the Forest Rights Act, the forest clearance for the project be cancelled.

They have contested also Ms Gupta’s claim that other members of the panel have gone beyond the purview of the committee’s mandate by looking at the “grant of clearances.” In their letter, the three members have drawn attention to the additional concerns raised by the former environment secretary as ‘looking beyond compliance with conditions of clearances’.

The final decision on the fate of the `54,000-crore project to be taken by the environment minister has already been described as a “tough call”. The letter from the majority members of the panel has made Mr Ramesh’s task of balancing of strategic interests with compliance to the laws of the land just that much tougher.

Two separate reports had been presented to the environment minister on Monday. The majority view, articulated by Urmila Pringle, Devendra Pandey and V Suresh, recommended immediate revoking of the environmental, forest and coastal regulatory zone clearances for the Posco’s integrated plant and captive port in Jagatsinghpur in Orissa.

The minority view put forward by Ms Gupta, recommended a “comprehensive and integrated” environment impact assessment report without cancelling the environmental and coastal regulation zone clearances for the project. The detailed environmental impact assessment report would, according to Ms Gupta, lead to additional conditionalities, which would address the deficiencies in the project.


The Economic Times, 20 October, 2010, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Members-trash-chairmans-dissent-report-on-Posco/articleshow/6777939.cms


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