MoEF expands terms of reference of Posco committee

The Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) has expanded the terms of reference of the Meena Gupta committee probing into violation of Forest Rights Act in the Posco project site in Orissa.

The order amending the terms of reference of the committee says that it will now review the compliance of the project with Environment Impact Assessment (EIA), Coastal regulation Zone and other clearances granted by MoEF and other Central, state and local authorities.

Besides, it will review the compliance of the project and the state authorities with statutory provisions, approvals, clearances and permission under various statutes, rules and notification etc.

These responsibilities come in addition to the earlier terms of reference of the committee which included investigation and ascertainment of the status of the implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Traditional Forest Dwellers (Regulation of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 in and around the forest land within the project site and investigation and ascertainment of the status of the implementation of the Rehabilitation and Resettlement provisions with respect to the project affected people.

Meanwhile, the Meena Gupta committee, which visited the Posco project site for two days on Friday and Saturday, has interacted with both project supporters and opponents and collected their views on violation of Forest Rights Act in the area.

While the anti-Posco brigade, through oral and documentary submission, pleaded before the committee to be treated as Other Traditional Forest Dwellers as per the provisions of FRA, the project supporters argued that their were neither any tribal in the area nor any villager dependent on the forest land for livelihood for three generations to attract FRA provisions.

“We have interacted with the villagers and collected their views. We will go back, discuss and ascertain the facts before submitting the report”, said Meena Gupta, leader of the MoEF team.

The other members of the team were Urmila Pingle, an expert on tribal issues, Devendra Pandey, a Rtd IFS officer and V. Suresh, an advocate of Madras High Court.