Entrance to the Vedanta plant and (right) Orissa High Court

Cuttack, Jan. 10: Orissa High Court today allowed time to the Union ministry of environment and forests till February 2 to clarify its stand on a petition filed by the Vedanta Aluminum Limited (VAL) challenging the order halting its expansion plans at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district.

On October 20, the ministry of environment and forests withdrew environmental clearance for expanding the capacity of VAL’s one million tonne alumina refinery to six millions tonnes and its captive power plant in the area from 75mw to 300mw. The company was asked to maintain status quo at the plant site.

VAL had filed the petition that the status quo order was based on a report of a four-member committee headed by N.C. Saxena for investigation into the proposal submitted by the Orissa Mining Corporation for bauxite mining in Niyamgiri.

“But the Saxena committee had not made any comment as to how the refinery expansion project would adversely affect the environment. It had only observed that the expansion has been carried out in violation of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), 2006, notification. Even the order withdrawing environmental clearance had nowhere stipulated any adverse impact on the environment as a result of the project,” the petition contended.

The petition came up for hearing today. While arguments were initiated on behalf of VAL by senior advocate K Sundaram, Centre’s counsel Shakti Dhar Das sought three weeks’ time to obtain instructions on the matter from the Union ministry of environment and forestry.

“The two-judge bench of Chief Justice V Gopal Gowda and Justice H.S. Bhalla fixed February 2 to start hearing on the case, while directing the central government counsel to take instructions from the Union ministry of environment and forests by then,” VAL counsel Manoj Mishra told The Telegraph today.

Several other petitions on behalf of workers engaged in the project had also been filed against withdrawing of environmental clearance for the project and direction for status quo.

The bench decided to take these up for parallel hearing along with the VAL’s petition.

VAL had, in its petition, stated that site preparation work had started in the end of 2008 and the main construction work began in May 2009 after the public hearing proceedings were concluded in respect of the proposed expansion.

“At present, the proposed expansion generates employment for around 10,000 families directly and around 15,000 families indirectly in Lanjigarh, an area where there is complete scarcity of livelihood,” VAL said.

The company said: “It has already invested huge amounts of money to the extent of around Rs 5,000 crore and a further Rs 5,000 crore is in the pipeline.”

Cuttack, Jan. 10: The Orissa High Court today allowed the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests time till February 2 to clarify its stand on a petition filed by Vedanta Aluminum Limited (VAL) challenging the order halting its expansion plans at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district of the state.

Union Ministry of Environment & Forests had on October 20, 2010 withdrawn environmental clearance for expanding the capacity of VAL’s one million tonne alumina refinery at Lanjigarh to six millions tonnes and its captive power plant in the area from 75 MW to 300 MW. The company was asked to maintain status quo at the plant site.

VAL had filed the petition that the status quo order was based on a report of a four-member committee headed by Dr N C Saxena for investigation into the proposal submitted by the Orissa Mining Corporation for Bauxite Mining in Niyamgiri.

“But the Saxena Committee had not made any comments as to how the refinery expansion project would adversely affect the environment. It had only observed that the expansion has been carried in violation of the EIA 2006 notification. Even the order withdrawing environmental clearance had nowhere stipulated any adverse impact on the environment as a result of the Expansion project”, the petition contended.

“Its case is being singled out as there have been cases of others similarly placed as the Petitioner which have been considered and granted environmental clearance”, the petition alleged.

The petition came up for hearing today. While arguments were initiated on behalf of VAL by Senior Advocate K.Sundaram, the Central government counsel Shakti Dhar Das sought three weeks time to obtain instructions on the matter from the Union ministry of Environment & Forestry.

“The two judge bench of Chief Justice V.Gopal.Gowda and Justice H.S.Bhalla fixed February 2 to start hearing on the case, while directing the central government counsel to take instructions from the Union Ministry of Environment & Forests by then”, VAL counsel Manoj Mishra told The Telegraph today.

Several other petitions on behalf of workers engaged in the project had also been filed against the withdrawing of environmental clearance for the expansion project and direction for status quo. The bench decided to take them up for analogous hearing along with VAL’s petition.

VAL had in its petition stated that site preparation work was started in end of 2008 and the main construction work was started in May 2009 after the public hearing proceedings were concluded in respect of the proposed expansion.

“The proposed expansion currently generates employment for around 10,000 families directly and around 15,000 families indirectly in Lanjigarh, an area where there is complete scarcity of livelihood”, VAL claimed, adding that “it has already invested huge amounts of money to the extent of around Rs 5000 crores and a further Rs 5,000 crores is in the pipeline”.