Public hearing on Polavaram irrigation project
Raipur, March 16 (IANS) After strong objections of Chhattisgarh, the central government has decided to hold a public hearing over a planned irrigation project on Godavari river by neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, the state assembly was informed Wednesday.
"Union Minister for Forest and Environment Jairam Ramesh has agreed to hold a public hearing on Polavaram irrigation project after the Chhattisgarh government strongly put the case before him," an official statement said.
According to the Chhattisgarh government, the project will submerge 7,500 hectares of forest land in the state and will affect population of 20 villages in Dantewada district.
The statement said Ramesh has informed Chief Minister Raman Singh by a letter about the decision to hold a public hearing.
Last week too, Raman Singh told the state assembly that the government would oppose the project "at all levels as it is not acceptable to Chhattisgarh".
Ramesh too has objected to the Andhra Pradesh going ahead with the project without settling the issue of building embankments with the Chhattisgarh and Orissa governments.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Idco kicks off land acquisition for ultra mega power project
BS Reporter / Kolkata/ Bhubaneswar March 18, 2011, 0:14 IST
The Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Orissa Ltd (Idco) has filed proposal for alienation of 3244.16 acres of land for the 4000 MW Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) proposed to be set up at Bhedabahal in Sundergarh district.
According to the information provided by Raghunath Mohanty, the minister for industries and steel & mines on the floor of the house, the alienation proposal has been filed for 512.21 acres of government land and 2731.95 acres of private land.
The UMPP is being taken up at an investment of around Rs 16,000 crore. The Orissa Integrated Power Limited, a fully owned subsidiary of Power Finance Corporation (PFC), the nodal agency for UMPPs, has extended the deadline for submitting the response to 'Request for Qualification' (RFQ) for this project to March 31.
Water for this UMPP has been allocated from the Ib river and check dams and barrages would be put up on the river for this purpose. The project has been allotted Meenakshi, Meenakshi-B and Dipside Meenakshi coal blocks containing a total reserve of 880 million tonnes.
Besides the Bhedabahal UMPP, there are proposals to set up two additional UMPPs in the state. While the Centre proposed to set up the second UMPP in Bolangir district, five locations have been shortlisted for the third UMPP- Kirtania, Dhamara, Astaranga, Paradeep and Gopalpur. The Centre has sought additional information on the suitability of these locations and the concerned departments of the state government would furnish the information on the same, said an official source.
Orissa would get 1300 MW from the first UMPP at Bhedabahal and 50 per cent of the power generated by the other two UMPPs.
The Orissa government has signed MoUs (Memorandum of Understanding) with as many as 27 Independent Power Producers (IPPs) for setting up power plants with a combined capacity of 32,420 MW. Seventeen of these IPPs have been asked to go for super critical technologies.
In addition to this, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has announced to set up two new super thermal power plants in the state- 4800 MW plant at Darlipalli in Sundergarh district and one 3200 MW plant at Gajmara in Dhenkanal district.
The navratna power utility, with an installed capacity of 3460 MW in Orissa, will invest over Rs 50,000 crore for creating additional capacity of 9320 MW in the state by the end of 2017.
Besides setting up two mega power projects at Darlipalli and Gajamara, NTPC is also scaling up the capacity of its existing thermal power station at Talcher by adding 1320 MW (2x660 MW) through two supercritical units.
BS Reporter / Kolkata/ Bhubaneswar March 18, 2011, 0:14 IST
The Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Orissa Ltd (Idco) has filed proposal for alienation of 3244.16 acres of land for the 4000 MW Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) proposed to be set up at Bhedabahal in Sundergarh district.
According to the information provided by Raghunath Mohanty, the minister for industries and steel & mines on the floor of the house, the alienation proposal has been filed for 512.21 acres of government land and 2731.95 acres of private land.
The UMPP is being taken up at an investment of around Rs 16,000 crore. The Orissa Integrated Power Limited, a fully owned subsidiary of Power Finance Corporation (PFC), the nodal agency for UMPPs, has extended the deadline for submitting the response to 'Request for Qualification' (RFQ) for this project to March 31.
Water for this UMPP has been allocated from the Ib river and check dams and barrages would be put up on the river for this purpose. The project has been allotted Meenakshi, Meenakshi-B and Dipside Meenakshi coal blocks containing a total reserve of 880 million tonnes.
Besides the Bhedabahal UMPP, there are proposals to set up two additional UMPPs in the state. While the Centre proposed to set up the second UMPP in Bolangir district, five locations have been shortlisted for the third UMPP- Kirtania, Dhamara, Astaranga, Paradeep and Gopalpur. The Centre has sought additional information on the suitability of these locations and the concerned departments of the state government would furnish the information on the same, said an official source.
Orissa would get 1300 MW from the first UMPP at Bhedabahal and 50 per cent of the power generated by the other two UMPPs.
The Orissa government has signed MoUs (Memorandum of Understanding) with as many as 27 Independent Power Producers (IPPs) for setting up power plants with a combined capacity of 32,420 MW. Seventeen of these IPPs have been asked to go for super critical technologies.
In addition to this, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has announced to set up two new super thermal power plants in the state- 4800 MW plant at Darlipalli in Sundergarh district and one 3200 MW plant at Gajmara in Dhenkanal district.
The navratna power utility, with an installed capacity of 3460 MW in Orissa, will invest over Rs 50,000 crore for creating additional capacity of 9320 MW in the state by the end of 2017.
Besides setting up two mega power projects at Darlipalli and Gajamara, NTPC is also scaling up the capacity of its existing thermal power station at Talcher by adding 1320 MW (2x660 MW) through two supercritical units.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Polavaram Politics
Since I have made a commitment on the floor of the House and I have stressed the need to implement the Polavaram project with the full cooperation of Orissa and Chhattisgarh, I would request for your cooperation in the matter to facilitate conduct of public hearings in Orissa and Chhattisgarh soon Jairam Ramesh, environment minister
SEEKING to mediate in the inter-state dispute over the Polavaram hydel and irrigation project in Andhra Pradesh, environment minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday asked the governments of Orissa and Chhattisgarh to help Andhra Pradesh in carrying out the mandatory public hearings for construction of embankments in areas under their jurisdiction.
Jairam wrote to the chief ministersof boththestatessayingthat Andhra Pradesh had already re questedthestatepollutioncontrol boards of Orissa and Chhattisgarh to facilitate public hearings fortheprojectbuthadnotreceived any response so far. The letter was sent after Jairam gave an assurance in the Rajya Sabha today that he would get the three states together to resolve the long-standing dispute over the R17,000 crore mega-project that will produce 960-MW electricity and irrigate nearlythreelakhhectaresof land.
"Since I have made a commitmentonthefloorof theHouseandI have stressed the need to implement the Polavaram project with the full cooperation of Orissa and Chhattisgarh, I would request for your cooperation in the matter to facilitate conduct of public hearings in Orissa and Chhattisgarh soon," Jairam said in his letter to RamanSinghandNaveenPatnaik. The public hearings have been necessitated by the design changesmadebyAndhraPradesh in the project because of which a fresh environmental clearance was required. Andhra Pradesh of fered to construct protective embankments on Sabari and Sileru rivers in Chhattisgarh and Orissa after the two states had had protestedagainsttheproject,complaining that it was likely to sub merge a number of their villages.
The project had initially been cleared by the Environment Ministry in 2005. Following the design changes, an amended clearance was granted in 2009 subject to the result of the public hearings to be conducted by Andhra Pradesh government in the two states. The affected areas fall under Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh and Malkangiri district of Orissa, both naxal-infested areas with large tribal populations.
Since the public hearings were not held, the Ministry had last November issued a showcause notice to Andhra Pradesh asking why the clearance must not be withdrawn.
Earlier, Jairam made a statement in Rajya Sabha on the issue after BJP's Venkaiah Naidu raise the matter and suggested that the Central government needed to intervene in resolving the dispute between the three states. He offered to arrange a meeting between the three chief ministers if that was required.
http://epaper.financialexpress.com/FE/FE/2011/03/05/ArticleHtmls/05_03_2011_005_010.shtml
SEEKING to mediate in the inter-state dispute over the Polavaram hydel and irrigation project in Andhra Pradesh, environment minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday asked the governments of Orissa and Chhattisgarh to help Andhra Pradesh in carrying out the mandatory public hearings for construction of embankments in areas under their jurisdiction.
Jairam wrote to the chief ministersof boththestatessayingthat Andhra Pradesh had already re questedthestatepollutioncontrol boards of Orissa and Chhattisgarh to facilitate public hearings fortheprojectbuthadnotreceived any response so far. The letter was sent after Jairam gave an assurance in the Rajya Sabha today that he would get the three states together to resolve the long-standing dispute over the R17,000 crore mega-project that will produce 960-MW electricity and irrigate nearlythreelakhhectaresof land.
"Since I have made a commitmentonthefloorof theHouseandI have stressed the need to implement the Polavaram project with the full cooperation of Orissa and Chhattisgarh, I would request for your cooperation in the matter to facilitate conduct of public hearings in Orissa and Chhattisgarh soon," Jairam said in his letter to RamanSinghandNaveenPatnaik. The public hearings have been necessitated by the design changesmadebyAndhraPradesh in the project because of which a fresh environmental clearance was required. Andhra Pradesh of fered to construct protective embankments on Sabari and Sileru rivers in Chhattisgarh and Orissa after the two states had had protestedagainsttheproject,complaining that it was likely to sub merge a number of their villages.
The project had initially been cleared by the Environment Ministry in 2005. Following the design changes, an amended clearance was granted in 2009 subject to the result of the public hearings to be conducted by Andhra Pradesh government in the two states. The affected areas fall under Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh and Malkangiri district of Orissa, both naxal-infested areas with large tribal populations.
Since the public hearings were not held, the Ministry had last November issued a showcause notice to Andhra Pradesh asking why the clearance must not be withdrawn.
Earlier, Jairam made a statement in Rajya Sabha on the issue after BJP's Venkaiah Naidu raise the matter and suggested that the Central government needed to intervene in resolving the dispute between the three states. He offered to arrange a meeting between the three chief ministers if that was required.
http://epaper.financialexpress.com/FE/FE/2011/03/05/ArticleHtmls/05_03_2011_005_010.shtml
Polavaram Politics
Jairam misled the house to give a push to Polavaram Project
"A short-time green crusader Jairam Ramesh is perhaps coming to his own colours. One of the key persons who advocated for economic liberalisation in India, Jairam became the green terror for a while by putting a halt to the projects of Vedanta, POSCO, JSPL in Orissa and many other projects in other parts. But his sudden turn to uphold the interests of TATA, POSCO, Jindal Steel and Powers in Orissa and a few other corporate houses in other parts has given him the image of a green traitor. Recently, his presentation of facts about Polavaram Project in the upper house of Indian Parliament has come as another blame for misleading the house."
In response to a Short Notice Question in Rajya Sabha on the controversial Polavaram Project of Andhra Pradesh, the Union Environment & Forests Minister for State Shri Jairam Ramesh, whose basic statutory role is that of a regulator, acted like a promoter and promissory statement in the house on March 4, 2011 that he would call a meeting of the Chief Ministers of Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh to clear the path for environment clearance to the project. Mr Ramesh and his promise were more in line to promote the project that was in clean conflict with his statutory role as a regulator. While role of the Environment ministry is to ensure that statutory and legal procedures are followed before a project is considered for environment clearance, the Minister clearly acted against his statutory role by making such a promise.
The Minister should instead be concerned that the Polavaram project authorities have not submitted a single half yearly compliance report since the project was given a clearance in October 2005 and, the irony is, his ministry has taken no action yet. He should also be concerned about the embankment that the ministry cleared was not part of the original plan and project proposal.
When there has been no study or assessment of the possible impacts or viability of the proposed embankment, the question thrown by Jairam against himself is, on which basis his ministry gave the forest clearance in July 2010?
During the debate on March 4, 2011 the minister also informed the Parliament that “the final stage-II forest clearance for the Polavaram Project was given way back in July, 2010” and never mentioned about non-compliance of FRA (Forest Rights Act) while giving the clearance. The minister seemed to be misleading the Parliament here.
It has been brought to the attention of the Minister by water management expert Himanshu Thakkar that the forest clearance was given by the MoEF in July 2010 without settling issues related to the Rights of dwellers living in the affected villages as required under the FRA. Gram Sabha resolutions to that effect from seven villages to be affected by proposed forest diversion for the Polavaram project have been sent to the Minister and also to the members of the statutory Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) constituted under the Forest Conservation Act. Similar resolutions from additional fifteen villages have been sent from Andhra Pradesh. Following Mr. Thakkar’s letter, Minister had responded that he would get the issues examined. The very next day, on Nov 22, 2010, Mr Ramesh himself wrote to the then AP CM Shri K Rosaiah saying, “the matter that has been made available to me clearly seems to indicate that the claims of local tribal communities do not seem to have been settled. This is a very serious matter.”
The Minister, however, having received no response from the AP Chief Minister, wrote again to the new AP CM Kiran Kumar Reddy on Jan 25, 2011 adding, “I am awaiting a response from the state government.”
In the meantime, following a detailed representation including gram sabha resolutions to all the FAC members, the statutory committee in its meeting on Oct 25, 2010 (minutes are available on MEF website) decided, “The FAC recommended that these complaints may be sent to the Ministry of Environment & Forests to take appropriate action at the Ministry level. The Ministry may give special consideration to the following:
Examine the alleged FRA violations and request the State Government to provide details on FRA compliance as per the law and circular of Aug. 2009; Examine the issue of forest land diversion for the embankments which are planned to prevent the submergence in adjoining States (the existing project report makes no mention of forest diversion for embankment even though it requires huge forest land and needs a special mention or, at least, an inclusion) in the Project proposal; Examine the discrepancies between the facts submitted when seeking clearance from the FAC and EAC respectively and take action if necessary.”
FAC being a statutory body, the state government has to satisfy the committee on the issues specifically raised by it. This is yet to happen.
Under these circumstances, the forest clearance given to the project cannot be considered final and the minister should have brought this issue to the notice of the upper house. Not mentioning these issues while talking about the Forest clearance is tantamount to misleading the house.
Here, it may also be added that the Central Electricity Authority is yet to give concurrence to the power component of the Polavaram project. Such a concurrence is a statutory requirement under section 8 of Electricity Act 2003. The CEA, in response to an RTI query has informed SANDRP that the application of concurrence from Polavaram was returned to the developer without any concurrence due to issues related to hydrology and because proposed installed capacity of 960 MW is unviable. The proposal to increase the cost of the project to Rs. 16010.45 crores from Rs. 10151.04 crores was also not accepted by the advisory Committee on Irrigation, Flood Control and Multi Purpose Projects in its meeting on Oct 27 2010 following intervention by Joint Secretary (Exp), Dept of Expenditure. A number of petitions are also pending in courts against the project. The Project was earlier given funding under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP) under erroneous claims. The Command area of the Polavaram project also significantly coincides with the command areas of Pushkara and Tadipudi Lift Irrigation Schemes, both of which are also getting funds under AIBP. CAG has already raised questions about all these. Almost all the claimed clearances of the project seem to be raising a lot more questions on many fronts.
Under these circumstances, when the project looks to be moving against all laws of the land, consideration of the project by the Union government under National Project scheme (as stated by the minister in Parliament) and making it eligible for 90% central funding seems to be a more unlawful act pursued by the government itself.
"A short-time green crusader Jairam Ramesh is perhaps coming to his own colours. One of the key persons who advocated for economic liberalisation in India, Jairam became the green terror for a while by putting a halt to the projects of Vedanta, POSCO, JSPL in Orissa and many other projects in other parts. But his sudden turn to uphold the interests of TATA, POSCO, Jindal Steel and Powers in Orissa and a few other corporate houses in other parts has given him the image of a green traitor. Recently, his presentation of facts about Polavaram Project in the upper house of Indian Parliament has come as another blame for misleading the house."
In response to a Short Notice Question in Rajya Sabha on the controversial Polavaram Project of Andhra Pradesh, the Union Environment & Forests Minister for State Shri Jairam Ramesh, whose basic statutory role is that of a regulator, acted like a promoter and promissory statement in the house on March 4, 2011 that he would call a meeting of the Chief Ministers of Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh to clear the path for environment clearance to the project. Mr Ramesh and his promise were more in line to promote the project that was in clean conflict with his statutory role as a regulator. While role of the Environment ministry is to ensure that statutory and legal procedures are followed before a project is considered for environment clearance, the Minister clearly acted against his statutory role by making such a promise.
The Minister should instead be concerned that the Polavaram project authorities have not submitted a single half yearly compliance report since the project was given a clearance in October 2005 and, the irony is, his ministry has taken no action yet. He should also be concerned about the embankment that the ministry cleared was not part of the original plan and project proposal.
When there has been no study or assessment of the possible impacts or viability of the proposed embankment, the question thrown by Jairam against himself is, on which basis his ministry gave the forest clearance in July 2010?
During the debate on March 4, 2011 the minister also informed the Parliament that “the final stage-II forest clearance for the Polavaram Project was given way back in July, 2010” and never mentioned about non-compliance of FRA (Forest Rights Act) while giving the clearance. The minister seemed to be misleading the Parliament here.
It has been brought to the attention of the Minister by water management expert Himanshu Thakkar that the forest clearance was given by the MoEF in July 2010 without settling issues related to the Rights of dwellers living in the affected villages as required under the FRA. Gram Sabha resolutions to that effect from seven villages to be affected by proposed forest diversion for the Polavaram project have been sent to the Minister and also to the members of the statutory Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) constituted under the Forest Conservation Act. Similar resolutions from additional fifteen villages have been sent from Andhra Pradesh. Following Mr. Thakkar’s letter, Minister had responded that he would get the issues examined. The very next day, on Nov 22, 2010, Mr Ramesh himself wrote to the then AP CM Shri K Rosaiah saying, “the matter that has been made available to me clearly seems to indicate that the claims of local tribal communities do not seem to have been settled. This is a very serious matter.”
The Minister, however, having received no response from the AP Chief Minister, wrote again to the new AP CM Kiran Kumar Reddy on Jan 25, 2011 adding, “I am awaiting a response from the state government.”
In the meantime, following a detailed representation including gram sabha resolutions to all the FAC members, the statutory committee in its meeting on Oct 25, 2010 (minutes are available on MEF website) decided, “The FAC recommended that these complaints may be sent to the Ministry of Environment & Forests to take appropriate action at the Ministry level. The Ministry may give special consideration to the following:
Examine the alleged FRA violations and request the State Government to provide details on FRA compliance as per the law and circular of Aug. 2009; Examine the issue of forest land diversion for the embankments which are planned to prevent the submergence in adjoining States (the existing project report makes no mention of forest diversion for embankment even though it requires huge forest land and needs a special mention or, at least, an inclusion) in the Project proposal; Examine the discrepancies between the facts submitted when seeking clearance from the FAC and EAC respectively and take action if necessary.”
FAC being a statutory body, the state government has to satisfy the committee on the issues specifically raised by it. This is yet to happen.
Under these circumstances, the forest clearance given to the project cannot be considered final and the minister should have brought this issue to the notice of the upper house. Not mentioning these issues while talking about the Forest clearance is tantamount to misleading the house.
Here, it may also be added that the Central Electricity Authority is yet to give concurrence to the power component of the Polavaram project. Such a concurrence is a statutory requirement under section 8 of Electricity Act 2003. The CEA, in response to an RTI query has informed SANDRP that the application of concurrence from Polavaram was returned to the developer without any concurrence due to issues related to hydrology and because proposed installed capacity of 960 MW is unviable. The proposal to increase the cost of the project to Rs. 16010.45 crores from Rs. 10151.04 crores was also not accepted by the advisory Committee on Irrigation, Flood Control and Multi Purpose Projects in its meeting on Oct 27 2010 following intervention by Joint Secretary (Exp), Dept of Expenditure. A number of petitions are also pending in courts against the project. The Project was earlier given funding under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP) under erroneous claims. The Command area of the Polavaram project also significantly coincides with the command areas of Pushkara and Tadipudi Lift Irrigation Schemes, both of which are also getting funds under AIBP. CAG has already raised questions about all these. Almost all the claimed clearances of the project seem to be raising a lot more questions on many fronts.
Under these circumstances, when the project looks to be moving against all laws of the land, consideration of the project by the Union government under National Project scheme (as stated by the minister in Parliament) and making it eligible for 90% central funding seems to be a more unlawful act pursued by the government itself.
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