“We will reply to the Centre on the panel’s reports within three days,” Patnaik told reporters here. The state government did not comment on the reports of the committee for the past two days.
Smarting under the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests blow to Vedanta Alumina’s bauxite mining in Niyamgiri mountains, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had avoided expressing his displeasure over majority of the ministry’s four-member panel suggesting scrapping environmental clearances given to the 12 million-tonne steel Posco project. Naveen, who discussed the panel’s recommendations and objections with the Chief Secretary, refused to comment on the report. Following the MoEF’s verdict on Vedanta Alumina in August, Naveen had taken a strong exception to the ministry’s decision and met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi.
The Rs 52,000 crore Posco steel project has been Orissa’s showpiece project since the day it was signed in June 2005. But Naveen’s dreams of an industrialised Orissa went awry after the company faced major hurdles in land acquisition.
Despite the CM’s muted reaction to the Posco report, senior officials of the environment and forest department, State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) and SC/ST department started working on the state’s written objection about the panel’s observation about violation of CRZ, environmental and Forest Rights Act laws. Forest and environment secretary Aurobindo Behera said his department was drafting its reply which would be sent before the FAC meeting on October 25. SC/ST department secretary Santosh Sarangi said the department could not be blamed over FRA implementation in the troubled areas of project area, as the onus was on the people of the area to file their claims.