MoEF panel asks Tel govt to act against cine workers' body for

A committee under the Union Environment Ministry has asked the Telangana government to act against Telugu Cine Workers Co-operative Housing Society Ltd for taking up construction work of a housing project allegedly without environmental clearance.
The project involves construction of group housing complex with a total built up area of 5,23,094.72 sq m in a total plot area of 2,72,788.93 sq m at Manikonda Jagir village in Rangareddy district by the society, the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) said in the minutes of the meeting held recently.
The construction was started in September 2009 and 60 per cent of the built-up area was reported to be completed by November 2016 (when applied to the state EAC) without obtaining the prior EC.

"The EAC, after detailed deliberations on the proposal in terms of the provisions of the MoEF & CC Notification dated March 14, 2017, confirmed the case to be of violation of the EIA Notification, 2006 and recommended for the following (action)," it said.
"The state government/State Pollution Control Board take action against the project proponent under the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, and further no consent to operate or occupancy certificate to be issued till the project is granted Environment Clearance," the EAC said.
The EAC also ordered the cine workers' society to submit a bank guarantee equivalent to the amount of remediation plan and natural and community resource augmentation plan with the SPCB prior to the grant of EC.

"The quantum (of bank guarantee) shall be recommended by the EAC and finalised by the regulatory authority. The bank guarantee shall be released after successful implementation of the Environmental Management Plan (EMP), followed by recommendations of the EAC and approval of the regulatory authority," the EAC added.
Representatives of the society were not immediately available for comments.
The state government (of united Andhra Pradesh) way back in 1993 allotted over 67 acres for group housing project to cine workers. As per the project report submitted for the EC, the total project cost was estimated to be Rs 245 crore.