Vedanta responds to showcause notices issued by MoEF

Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL) today submitted its response to the showcause notices slapped by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) on August 31.

“We have submitted our response along with all necessary supporting documents to both the show cause notices issued by MoEF. We cannot disclose the content of the reply at this point as the matter is under review by the ministry,” VAL chief operating officer Mukesh Kumar said after submitting its reply to MoEF.

In its response to the showcause notices, the company has contested the ministry’s ‘ambiguous’ stance on granting environmental clearance for its projects.

MoEF, in its latest circular dated August 19, has stated that a number of project proponents have started work on the capacity expansion of their projects without prior environmental clearance. The ministry asserted that all projects needed to have prior environmental clearance for undertaking the capacity expansion.

VAL has pointed out that the latest MoEF circular contradicts the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification of 2006.

“According to the 2006 notification, any project proponent who wishes to undertake capacity expansion work without any change in process or technology does not require environmental clearance and the same applies to VAL as the company is using the same technology and processes for our capacity expansion work,” said a company official.

MoEF had slapped the showcause notice on August 31 wherein it had stated that 11 out of 14 mines in Jharkhand supplying bauxite to VAL were without environmental clearance. In this case, too, VAL stated that the ministry was not acting in conformity with its circular dated July 2, 2010, according to which all mines which are in existence for over 20 years did not need environmental clearance and only need renewal of mining leases.

“The mines in Jharkhand, which are supplying bauxite to us have been in operations before 1994, and hence they do not need any environmental clearance. Four of these mines are working under deemed extension. Apart from VAL, these mines are also supplying bauxite to Hindalco Industries and many other refractory and cement units,” the official added.