BHUBANESWAR:
The National Green Tribunal has restrained Essar steel to take water from the Baitarani
River and also issued notice to the
company to stop construction. The tribunal on Wednesday issued the notice after
hearing on the appeal by Sarbeswar Mishra and Murlimanohar Sharma on use of
Baitarani water.
The tribunal has also issued
notice to the forest department of the Central Government, State Government and
Keonjhar collector on the issue. The next hearing would be held on January 17.
It may be noted that the company
had signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the State Government on April 21, 2005 to set up a steel
plant having 10.7 million tonne per annum production capacity at Dubuna of
Keonjhar district, tailing pond at Basantpur and 260 km long slurry transport
system envisaged from beneficiation plant at Dubuna to Paradeep.
When the plant had started work,
it didn’t follow the amended version of the Forest Protection Act 1980. Two organisations
‘Baitarani Suraksha Manch’ and ‘Baitarani Banchao Abhiyan’ have been protesting
the company’s construction in the river, but the company is not paying heed to
their concern. Even the company didn’t obey the Keonjhar collector’s letter to
stop construction, alleged applicant Sharma.
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