Orissa To Send Report Today

Senior officials said the letter will be sent by April 12. The MoEF, which granted its conditional approval to the Rs 52,000 crore project on January 31, had said the final approval of diversion of 1,253 hectares of forest land will be granted as soon as an assurance of the state over the Forest Rights Act (FRA) implementation is received.

“There was no one in that area who could be called an OTFD. There are also no tribals in the project area who can claim rights to the land under the Forest Rights Act," Chief Secretary B K Patnaik said. Read the full report here.

Source: Debabrata Mohanty, Indian Express, Bhubaneswar.