India's Green Tribunal suspends enviromental clearance to Posco steel project in Orissa

New Delhi, Mar 30 (PTI) The environment clearance granted to South Korean major Posco's proposed mega steel project in the southeast Indian state of Orissa was suspended by the National Green Tribunal today in another blow to the country's single largest foreign direct investment venture. The Tribunal directed the India's Environment and Forest Ministry to review afresh the clearance for the long-delayed project and attach "specific conditions" which Posco would have to follow in a "defined timeline". "The environment clearance granted on January 31, 2011 to the project shall remain suspended till such review and appraisal is done by the ministry," a bench of the tribunal comprising Justice C V Ramulu and Devendra Kumar Agarwal held. The tribunal decision ironically came just days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Seoul that the project will be implemented and there was progress on it. India's Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan did not think that the Tribunal decision is a setback to the project in the wake of the assurance by the Prime Minister "I don't think two things are connected," she said. Natarajan said her predecessor Jairam Ramesh, who granted the clearance to Posco, had followed "very strict and very very transparent procedure and systems which have been put in place". The tribunal pointed out that memorandum of understanding between India's Orissa state government and Posco states that the project is for production of 12 million tonnes of steel per annum (MTPA) but the environment impact assessment (EIA) report has been prepared only for 4 MTPA steel production in the first phase. It said the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) should take a "policy decision" that in projects of such magnitude the EIA should be done for the complete project. "The EIA should assess it for the full capacity right from the beginning." The bench also said appointment of Meena Gupta as chairman of the committee to review the environmental clearance showed "departmental bias" as she had only "supported" the environment clearance granted to Posco earlier during her tenure as Secretary (top bureaucrat) of MoEF. "The entire process was vitiated in the eyes of law," the bench said in this regard. The order came on a plea filed by environment activist Prafulla Samantray seeking quashing of the environmental clearance granted to POSCO on the ground that it was "contrary to the provisions of the EIA Notification 2006" and was "illegal and arbitrary". Advocate Ritwick Dutta, appearing for the petitioner, had said that impact on environment in case of steel production by the plant to its full capacity would be much more. Prafulla, in his petition said, "It is admitted that the project will not be viable if it is restricted to the steel production of only 4 MTPA. In such circumstances, the EIA report should have been for 12 MTPA (of steel production). The project proponent has opted to do an EIA for 4 MTPA since the likely impact of 12 MTPA is bound to be much more and very significant". POSCO India Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of South Korea's POSCO (formerly Pohang Iron and Steel Company), was granted environmental clearance for its two projects, steel-cum-captive power plant project and captive minor port, in Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa in 2007. The MoEF after reviewing the same, granted environmental clearance with additional conditions on January 31, 2011 which prompted the petitioner to move the tribunal. The clearance was assailed contending that "the whole approach of the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) was not to give an unbiased opinion, but rather to justify the decision to grant environmental clearance to both the projects." The Environment Ministry, however, had told the tribunal there was no infirmity in its decision to grant environmental clearance to POSCO. POSCO had also maintained that it has not violated any law and is working in compliance with the norms. PTI