Green Tribunal 'punishes' MoEF officials, mining permission in Sacorda quashed
PTI, NEW DELHI | 05 December 2012 20:38 IST
The Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) has been pulled up by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for "casually" granting environmental clearance for a mining project in reserved forest area in Goa without verifying the information.
The NGT bench of Justice V R Kingaonkar and expert member D K Agrawal quashed the environment clearance (EC) and the forest clearance (FC) granted by the MoEF and the approval of Goa's Chief Warden of Wildlife to mining firm Elray Minerals and Company, saying they were "invalid, illegal and improper."
"Considering the deficiencies mentioned ... All the three impugned orders of EC, FC and Chief Warden of Wildlife are invalid, illegal and improper. All three communications will have to be, therefore, quashed as prayed.
"We are further of the opinion that the MoEF and other authorities casually granted the clearances/approvals without verification of the necessary facts and without following the due procedure" the bench said.
The "deficiencies" mentioned by the Tribunal regarding the clearances and approval granted to the mining firm were that public hearing was not conducted as per due procedure, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report was not duly obtained and authenticated, proximity of the mining project to the reserved forests and wildlife sanctuaries in the area was not ascertained, etc.
"The information submitted by the project proponent was accepted as a gospel truth by the MoEF. The MoEF on its part did not verify the correctness of the information given... Needless to say, everything appears to be fishy, based on untrue facts and inaccuracies," the bench said.
The Tribunal also said that as per the records/affidavits filed by the MoEF, the Director of Mines, Goa and the Forest Department of Goa, Elray Minerals was not given any permission or land for the purpose of mining activity.
The Tribunal gave its directions on an application by six farmers of Goan village Sacorda, where iron ore mining project was set up.
The farmers had alleged that the MoEF had granted the clearances without any proper public hearing and that the mining activity would seriously damage the biodiversity of the region.
They had also raised issues pertaining to air and noise pollution, source of irrigation from underground water, absence of proper baseline data in EIA report, ground water table depth etc. As a result of the mining activity.
The bench also directed that departmental proceedings be initiated against the concerned officials of the MoEF and the office of the Chief Warden of Wildlife who participated in the grant of clearances and approval and if they are no longer employed with the government, then "the estimated loss or an amount of Rs five lakh (for each approval/clearance) shall be recovered from them."
Elray Minerals was also asked by the Tribunal to deposit Rs five lakh or net present value of the forest area cleared/ broken by it (to be ascertained by the MoEF), whichever is more, with the Government of Goa.
"The amount shall be utilised through appropriate agency identified by state government for afforestation of the broken area," the Tribunal said, while also directing the mining firm to pay Rs one lakh to the six applicant farmers.
