Ministry pulls the plug on Cong MP's power plant
New Delhi: The Environment and Forests Ministry has withdrawn its permission for the construction of a power project in Chhattisgarh by a company headed by Lok Sabha Congress MP Naveen Jindal.
According to a June-18 letter of the ministry, Jindal Power Ltd. started construction of a 2,400 MW-power plant in Chhatisgarh “without obtaining prior environmental clearance”. The power plant had faced trouble earlier too. In February 2010, the Chhattisgarh EnvironmentConservation Board found construction going on at the plant site without permission and asked the company to stop work immediately. Environment activist Ramesh Aggarwal claims the Environment Ministry found irregularities at the plant site when he complained to them and now he is being harassed as a result.
“I had complained to Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh about them, following which they (the Ministry) sent an inspection team and found that construction was going on,” Aggarwal.
Aggarwal alleges that after he complained to the Environment Ministry the police filed an extortion case against him on the basis of a complaint filed by Jindal Power. Chhattisgarh Police confirm the companyhad filed complaint against Aggarwal.
“Jindal Company came to us and said that Aggarwal had asked for Rs 5 crore from them. They have given five witnesses as well, based on which we issued an FIR,” said Rahul Sharma, Superintendent of Police, Raigarh.
It is unclear why Aggarwal was charged with extortion only after only after the company’s terms of reference (TOR) was cancelled by the Environment Ministry. It is also not known how Jindal Power began constructing the plant without the requisite environment clearance or conducting a public hearing.
Jindal, executive vice-chairman of the company refused to comment, but his company representative said the construction of the plant has been halted on the objection of NGOs.
“The TOR has been withdrawn and we have changed the location of our project. Some NGOs thought that the construction has been started for the new 4x600 MW power plant and they objected to it. On their objection we had stopped construction activities long back,” said the company official.
Raigarh, July 18 /--/ A local court in Chhattisgarh has issued a summons against Jindal Power and one of its officials in a case of alleged violation of environmental norms. The company official has been asked to appear before chief judicial magistrate S K Soni's court on August 11. The case, filed by the Chhattisgarh Pollution Control Board on the directions of the state government, alleges that the company started construction work on its 2,400 mw OP Jindal Power Project without the required environmental clearances. The complaint also alleges that the company ignored two notices, dated February 26 and June 23, to stop work at the site, as per the court documents. The case has been registered under different sections of the Environment Protection Act (EPA), 1986, the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, and Indian Penal Code. The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has already scrapped Jindal Power's proposal for a mega-power plant in Chhattisgarh after finding that construction of the plant started without mandatory environment clearance. JPL presently operates a 1,000 mw power plant at Tamnar in the state. (PTI)
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