Proving his skeptics wrong, environment minister Jairam Ramesh has issued a notice to his own partyman Naveen Jindal on why the environment clearance given to his steel firm Jindal Steel and Power should not be revoked for flouting clearance conditions. The steel plant is the third big project from Orissa that has fallen foul of the 'activist' minister in the last one year.
"Construction work like storage godown, roads, foundation for industrial activities like power plant, stockyard, plant mill etc. have been undertaken on the non-forest government land and you were directed to stop all the activities within the project area till forest clearance is obtained," noted the letter sent on Monday.
The six million ton per year steel plant, with built-in power generation, was given a conditional go-ahead in 2007, and the ministry was considering Jindal's request for allotment of 168 hectares of forest land for the factory. The conditional go-ahead had a specific clause banning any construction activity anywhere on the 2,000 hectare plant site before the forest allocation is cleared, the notice sent by scientist Nalini Bhat pointed out.
However, Reuters reported company director Sushil Maroo as having denied any violation in clearance conditions. "There is no violation (of environmental norms) and we will respond to the notice when we get it," the agency quoted the official. Another news-agency quoted him as having agreed that some "minor infrastructure work" may have taken place.
Ramesh has been criticized by some for going after the likes of Vedanta and the South Korean giant Posco, even as Congress MP Naveen Jindal's project was yet to be issued a show cause notice. Critics had alleged that Ramesh was attacking the two industrialists because they were close to Biju Janata Dal government in Orissa.
Ramesh has a stated policy of not accepting 'fait accompli' or irreversible deeds under which violations of environmental norms used to be 'regularized' by the payment of special fines under his predecessors. Posco's Orissa plant -- the largest foreign investment project in the country -- is likely to learn its fate within two weeks, according to indications from the ministry.
