EAC report on Posco project after scrutiny of comprehensive EIA

The Expert Appraisal Committee of the Union ministry of environment & forests will submit its report soon to the ministry on the Posco project after scrutinizing the Comprehensive Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) submitted by the company.

"The EAC would submit its report soon to the MOEF after scrutinizing the Comprehensive EIA submitted by Posco India. The EAC met yesterday for over three hours and there we reiterated our stand on issues relating to environmental and Coastal Regulator Zone (CRZ) clearance for the proposed project”, an official source told Business Standard.

A high-level delegation of the Orissa government including Aurobindo Behera, principal secretary (forest & environment), Orissa government, Revenue Divisional Commissioner Pradipta K Mohapatra and Narayan Jena, the Jagatsinghpur district collector were present at the meeting.It may be noted that the report submitted by three other members of the Meena Gupta panel- Urmila Pingle, Devendra Pandey and V Suresh- strongly felt that there have been many serious lapses and illegalities in the EIA process.

They held that the EIA prepared for the Posco project was a rapid EIA, based on one season data without taking into account all the components of the project like township project, water project, rail road and transport facilities.These three members had also called for immediate revocation of the environmental clearance granted for the steel plant and the captive port project.

Earlier, the state government in its letter to the MoEF had asserted that there has been violation of environmental and CRZ norms as work on the project is yet to take off and this has also been mentioned by Meena Gupta in her report. The compliance of environmental and CRZ norms can be ensured only after work on the project begins.

The state government had also stated that the conduct of two separate public hearings for the steel plant and the captive port project were unnecessary. On choosing Kujang, a town 15 kms from the site of the project for holding public hearing, the officials pointed out that the place was selected to ensure that all stakeholders have easy access to the venue.

The government had also pointed out that the Posco project site did not fall within the Paradeep Notified Area Council. Paradeep with a Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index of 69.26 has been identified as severely polluted area, bordering on critically polluting index of 70.