Joint Committee report in the matter of O.A. No 109/2020 (Ramesh Agarwal Vs Union of India & Others) in compliance of National Green Tribunal (NGT) order, March 16, 2021.

The court had directed the constitution of a Joint Committee to look into the matter of violation of environmental norms against M/s Ambuja Cement Limited in Raigarh district, Chhattisgarh. The applicant (Ramesh Agarwal) has said that the extension of validity of environment clearance (EC) for commissioning of pit head captive wet coal washery has been done without assessing fresh baseline data with respect to various environmental parameters, adverse impact of reduction of width of green belt from 50 meters to 20 meters, mode of utilization of middling (reject) and non-compliance of EC conditions like carrying out cumulative impact assessment.

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The report informed the court that the issues raised by the applicant are valid and recommended that the extension given by the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) should be reviewed in the light of issues raised by the applicant. Ambuja Cement Limited has agreed to provide updated status on utilization of rejects from the washery, submission of fresh baseline data of the surrounding area among others.

The committee has recommended that the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) cancel the extension given for the validity of EC to M/s Ambuja Cement Limited, Gare Palma, IV/8 coal mine and review the conditions of the EC.

Note: The report of April 12, 2021 was uploaded to the NGT site, June 23, 2021