Abhijit Roy Choudhry
NEW DELHI: The union environment ministry on Tuesday totally rejected forest clearance to multinational Vedanta’s 1.7 billion US dollar bauxite mining project in Orissa.
Talking to media persons here the Environment minister Jairam Ramesh said that there were very serious violation of Environment Protection Act, Forest Conservation Act and the Forest Rights Act.
Ramesh also said the Orissa government had violated the Forest Rights Act and Vedanata Resources violated the Environment Protection Act (EPA). He said the Vedanta group violated rules regarding the primitive tribal groups.
N C Saxena committee set up to look into the Vedanta issue had sought a ban on the mining project in Orissa’s Niyamgiri Hills in view of various violations at the site.
The committee report has citied many violations of the in-principle environment clearance given to Orissa Mining Corporation in 2008 including non-compliance with the provisions of the Forest Rights Act. Yesterday, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen P’atnaik had met Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in New Delhi to discus the issue.