No FRA violations at Posco site
The three members of the Meena Gupta panel went beyond the committee's mandate in questioning the environmental and CRZ (Coastal Regulatory Zone) clearance granted to the Posco project by the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), a team of officials of the Orissa government has informed the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC).
Appearing before FAC at New Delhi today, the officials reiterated the state government’s stand that there has not been any violation of the Forest Right Act (FRA) at the project site.
"We stated at the FAC meeting that the three members of the Meena Gupta panel in their report have gone beyond the mandate of the committee in questioning the environmental and CRZ clearance given to the Posco project. In doing so, these three members have challenged the authority of MoEF”, said Siddhant Das, member secretary of the Orissa State Pollution Control Board who was at the FAC meeting.
The report submitted by the three other members of the Meena Gupta panel- Urmila Pingle, Devendra Pandey and V Suresh strongly felt that there have been serious lapses and illegalities in the EIA process.
They held that the EIA prepared for the Posco project was a rapid EIA, based on one season data without taking into account all the components of the project like township project, water project, rail road and transport facilities.
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These three members had called for immediate revocation of the environmental clearance granted for the steel plant and the captive port project even as the panel leader Meena Gupta in a separate report opined for allowing Posco to go ahead with the project subject to completion of a comprehensive environment impact assessment (EIA) and imposition of certain conditions.
On the allegation of FRA violations, Das said, "We told FAC that all procedures have been followed meticulously and there has been no flaw in this regard. We hope that the FAC was convinced by our arguments”, added Das.
Narayan Jena, the Jagatsinghpur district collector who was also present at the meeting, said, “The FAC sought our clarification on issues relating to violation of FRA and we categorically stated that there has not been any violation. Even in case of holding palli sabhas, we stated that all rules and procedures have been duly followed.”
The FAC did not give us any assurance on the Posco project, he stated.
The officials of the state government also asserted before the FAC that the rehab package of the Posco project has been prepared as per the state's Rehabilitation & Resettlement (R&R) policy which they claimed to be the best in the country.
“The rehabilitation package for the Posco project has been worked out as per the R&R policy of the Orissa government which is the best in the country. We challenged before the FAC that there cannot be a better rehabilitation package”, said Pradipta K Mohapatra, Revenue Divisional Commissioner (Northern Range).
There were no discussions on grant of environmental and CRZ clearance to the Posco project at the FAC meeting.
The three members of the Meena Gupta had stated that there is documentary as well as oral evidence to support the presence of Other Traditional Forest Dwellers at the Posco project site.
They also alleged that the Jagatsinghpur district administration has not been fair and democratic in implementing the FRA in the project affected villages.
They held that there has been lack of adequate publicity, awareness campaign, training as required to the people and the Palli Sabha specially, in the project affected villages, about various provisions of the FRA and the process which forms the first link of the FRA implementation.
“When the palli sabhas were called for the first time in these villages on March 23, 2008, the required quorum in many cases was not complete to constitute the Forest Rights Committee (FRC). The district administration also did not fulfill its obligations to assist, support and provide records as a part of the process”, the members said in their report.