Slamming as "illegal" the grant of Mahan coal block to a private mining company in Madhya Pradesh, Union Tribal Affairs Minister V Kishore Chandra Deo has again raised objections to allocation of mines against the "interest" of tribal and other forest inhabitants.
The Minister also hinted at his unhappiness with environment ministry, which is headed by his colleague Jayanthi Natarajan, and said her predecessor Jairam Ramesh had denied forest clearance to Mohan coal block on the basis of inputs from Forest Advisory Committee.
Alleging a nexus of the private company and local authorities, he asked Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to "join hands" with him to work for the tribal's cause.
Deo had earlier taken on Vedanta and said allocation of mines to it in Odisha was in violation of constitutional protection given to tribals.
He alleged that the allocation of coal block to Mahan Coal Ltd, a joint venture of Essar and Hindalco, was done completely ignoring the community rights of tribal and other local population.
Deo also wrote to state Governor Ram Naresh Yadav, saying "there is a strong misgiving among tribal and affected people of there being a strong nexus between the said company and local authorities in the region which is leading to large scale violation of forest rights".
Accompanied by Greenpeace, an NGO working for environment, officials and some local villagers, he alleged that state authorities forged signatures of villagers to pass "resolution" in support of the official decision.
When residents of two affected villages, Ameilia and Suhira, decided to pass a resolution on community forest rights, an important aspect of FRA, on August 15, 2012, goons of the private company disrupted it, he alleged.
The administration then held a special gram sabha on FRA on March 6, 13, where signatures were forged to show the locals' support, Deo wrote to Chouhan.
"Subsequently, Essar has wrestled forest and coal block clearances... Granting clearance will be a complete breach of the legal requirements of the FRA," he wrote to Chouhan.
