If there is a single conclusion the Ministry of Environment and Forests can arrive at based on the report of the four-member committee led by Planning Commission member N.C. Saxena on the proposed open cast mining in Orissa's forested Niyamgiri hills, it is this: drop it.
After one stop-work order on the Rs 54,000-crore Posco project, a four-member panel appointed by the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has dealt a blow to yet another big-ticket investor in Orissa, the London-based Vedanta Resources Ltd.
This expert panel report on Vedanta's bauxite mining
project in Orissa submitted to MoEF on August 16, 2010 says that the
company must not given permission for this project as it has illegally
occupied forest land andwill also threaten survival of local tribes. <br>
NEW DELHI: The Attorney-General has given the government a free rein to refuse forest clearance for Vedanta Aluminium's bauxite mining proposal in the Niyamgiri Hills of Orissa.
New Delhi: The Union environment and forests ministry has armed itself to tighten the noose against the Vedanta project in Orissa. It has sought and received an opinion from the Attorney General that the ministry, despite a Supreme Court order, still holds the legal mandate to refuse forest clearance to the company.
