Railway power project to test Cong-TMC ties

Ties between the Congress and the Trinamool Congress have been sensitive at the best of times. Now, the relationship is set to face a 'pollution' test as Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh enquires into CPI(M)’s complaints against Mamata Banerjee's favourite development project in Bengal.

Recently, the CPI(M) petitioned the proactive Environment Minister to prevent a proposed power plant - a project jointly undertaken by the Indian Railways and the Natoional Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) - from coming up in the West Bengal town of Adra. Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee had laid the foundation stone of the 1,320-MW thermal power project last month amid a huge turnout of people from the area.

According to CPI(M) leader in Lok Sabha Basudeb Acharia, “Jairam Ramesh promised that if we gave him a written complaint, he would stop the project. We gave him the letter last week.” Ramesh remained unavailable for comment.

The CPI(M)'s discomfiture is evident. Banerjee’s project is located in Purulia district, a Left bastion. Last month, the Indian Railways had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with power major NTPC to set up a 1,320 MW captive plant at Adra in Purulia.

In his letter, Acharia requested Ramesh “to get the matter examined and issue necessary instructions to the Railways not to set up thermal power plant on a piece of land, where lakhs and lakhs of trees will have to be cut.”

Although the proposed project is coming up on a 430 hectre Railway land, the Left is crying foul. Leaders say the west Bengal Forest department had undertaken an afforestation programme in 1984. The CPI(M) had already taken up the issue with the Inspector General of Forest who replied that the Railways will not require additional permission from the Central government to set up this plant. Acharia' question to Ramesh is: “How is the Ministry of Environment and Forest advising Ministry of Railways to set up thermal power plant which will cause lakhs and lakhs of trees to be cut?”

The CPI(M) wants the project to be shifted to an alternate site but the Railways Ministry is not ready to move an inch.

"Along with NTPC, we are setting up a thermal power plant at Adra. This power plant will be a matter of pride for the whole country," Mamata Banerjee had said while laying the foundation stone last month.

Ramesh, an environmental evangelist, finds himself between a rock and a hard place. If he turns down the project, he will earn the ire of the second biggest ally of the Congress in the second UPA. If he doesn't, he will be complicit in cutting down a vast tract of forest.