Now Lavasa and Jindal get notices from Jairam

The Union Environment Ministry today issued two show-cause notices, one to the proposed township being developed by Lavasa Corporation in Maharashtra and the other to a proposed iron and steel plant by Jindal Steel in Orissa.

In the show-cause notice to Lavasa Corporation, which is developing a hilly township between Mumbai and Pune, the Environment Ministry has claimed that certain parts of the project, especially the construction at a height above 1000 m over sea-level, were in violation of environmental laws and asked the developer to reply within 15 days why these parts should not be demolished. Lavasa has been told to freeze any construction.

Similarly, it has asked Jindal Steel and Power to explain, within 15 days, as to why the environmental clearance granted to its 6 million tonnes per year capacity proposed steel plant in Angul, Orissa, should not be revoked in view of "non-compliance" of conditions stipulated while according the approval.

The two notices are just the latest in a spate of orders that the Environment Ministry has passed in the last few months revoking clearances granted earlier, issuing show-cause notices to ongoing projects and laying down fresh stipulations for grant of environmental approvals in future.

These include the high-profile cases of POSCO's proposed steel plant in Orissa, Vedanta's bauxite mining and alumina refinery projects in Orissa, Polavaram hydel-cum-irrigation project in Andhra Pradesh, Jindal's another steel plant in Chhattisgarh and closure notices to a number of polluting industries along the Ganga river in Uttar Pradesh.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has written several letters to chief ministers of various states on issues related to illegal mining, wildlife or infrastructure projects, urging them to initiate action for violation of one law or the other. There also have been a spate of clarifications and orders like the recent one that told coal-dependent industries that unless they are able to establish that they were sure of reliable supplies of coal from a valid coal-mine, their main project, like a thermal power plant for example, would not be cleared.

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