Saturday, 11 Jun 2011
ET reported that the union environment ministry has asked Jindal Steel & Power Limited to respond to allegations that the company has built its coal washery at Raigarh in Chhattisgarh without obtaining prior environmental clearance from the ministry.
According to a notice filed by Mr Ramesh Agarwal of Jan Chetana, a non governmental organization, JSPL has built an 800 tonnes an hour coal washery at Tamnar near Raigarh.
The matter concerning Jindal Steel & Power's washery was considered in the April meeting of the environment ministry's Expert Appraisal Committee that was convened to consider thermal and coal mining projects. While considering Jindal Steel's application for the captive pithead coal washery, the Expert Committee asked JSPL's stand on allegations that the washery didn't have prior clearance.
JSPL spokesman said construction of the coal washery had been started after obtaining consent to establish from the Chhattisgarh Environment Conservation Board.
However, an environment ministry official said that as per schedule 2 (a) of a September 2006 notification, which brings coal washeries under the ambit of Environment Impact Assessment Notification of 1994, a coal washery must also have an Environment Clearance from the MoEF first.
It is mandatory under environment norms that Environmental Clearance is sought before building a coal washery due to the extent of their impact on environment. While the ministry of environment & forests can approve washeries of more than 100,000 tonnes capacity, state boards could clear smaller ones. (sourced from Times Internet Limited)
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