On April 1, 2011, the Orissa government filed an application in the Supreme Court challenging the Centre's rejection of environmental clearance to the UK-based Vedanta Group's $1.7 billion bauxite mining project proposed in the Niyamgiri hills. The state government filed the application through the Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) against the Ministry of Environment and Forests' (MoEF) order, dated August 24, 2010, denying the project clearance. In its petition, the state government said that the MoEF's decision was in violation of a previous order by the Supreme Court giving the project the green signal. It also contended that the Centre's order was illegal and arbitrary.
So, why was Vedanta denied clearance and another project, POSCO, given the go-ahead? According to three members of the Meena Gupta-headed POSCO review committee (tribal affairs expert Urmila Pingle, former director general of forests Devendra Pandey and Madras High Court advocate V Suresh), constituted to look into the violation of various laws in the proposed POSCO project: “Both POSCO and Vedanta are alike in the sense that in both instances there is gross violation of the law with impunity."Â
This is a view shared by many who have been keenly watching the approach of the state and the central government towards the two much-talked-about projects - POSCO steel and Vedanta alumina. So there was surprise that Vedanta was given the thumbs-down (August 24, 2010) while POSCO got the green signal (January 31, 2011). One failed to convince Sonia and Rahul Gandhi's green soldier (Jairam Ramesh), while the other managed to win over Manmohan's ministerial colleague. Read the full report here.
Source: by Pradeep Baisakh, Orissadiary.com.
