Orissa denies violation of FRA and CRZ norms at Posco site

The Orissa government has filed its response to the Ministry of Envionment and Forest (MoEF) regarding Meena Gupta committee’s reports on Posco project, denying all allegations about violations of Forest Rights Act (FRA) and Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) at the project site.

The state government has reiterated its earlier stand that there are no tribals at the Posco project site and palli sabhas had been conducted as per established procedures and there had been no irregularities.

"We have already faxed our response to the MoEF on the two separate reports of the Meena Gupta panel. In our response, we have stated that there has been no violation of FRA and there are no tribals at the Posco project site”, B K Pattnaik told media persons.

On issues pertaining to environmental clearance and CRZ clearance, he said, “One cannot say 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.”

Pattnaik also stated that the palli sabhas have been conducted as per procedures and there have been no irregularities in the process. He further said the state government has requested the MoEF to allow work on the Posco project to continue.

It may be noted that the MoEF had issued a stop work order on the Posco project on August 5 based on the recommendations of the N C Saxena committee.

"The FRAs have been implemented as per procedures. As far as Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) is concerned, Posco has announced a special package and this package has been approved by the Rehabilitation and Peripheral Development Advisory Committee (RPDAC). If any family is left out of the R&R process, it can be included”, said an official source.

The report submitted by the three other members of the panel- Urmila Pingle, Devendra Pandey and V Suresh- strongly felt that there have been 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.