The Environment Ministry has given environmental clearance to the Rs 52,000-crore Posco steel plant in Odisha, just a week ahead of South Korean President Park Geun Hye’s visit to India.

The plant has been mired in controversy for over eight years now, with environmental issues coming in the way of the project, tipped as the single largest foreign direct investment in India.

Ministry officials said the two parts of the Posco project — a steel plant and a port — have been delinked and only the steel plant has been granted approval.

The plant has an estimated annual capacity of 12 million tonnes. Environmental clearance for the port project is still pending.

However, environmentalist Kanchi Kohli, Member, Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group, said delinking the two is not a viable decision since the project is an integrated one. She said on the ground level protests against the project are likely to continue.

Chandra Bhushan, Deputy Director-General, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said the Government’s Expert Appraisal Committee had also given a strong view that the port and steel should be addressed together. He questioned the decision to delink the two.

“Posco has not been blocked by law, it has been stopped by people,” he pointed out, adding that such a decision could be challenged.

Meanwhile Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti spokesperson Prashant Paikray said local villagers are set to protest against the clearance. “People are ready to fight against it. We feel it has been done to please the South Korean President (who is set to visit India next week),” he said.

The villagers will file a petition with the Environment Ministry and take legal action if required, he added.

The next hearing by the National Green Tribunal, on the issue of tree felling in the proposed forest land even before the project has received forest clearance, is scheduled for January 13.

Environment Minister Veerappa Moily, who took charge late December, has reportedly cleared some other big ticket infrastructure projects, worth about Rs 19,000 crore, in the first week of this year. These include two power projects, two coal mines, a port in Andhra Pradesh and a crude pipeline.

severe criticism Former environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan had come under severe criticism for stalling clearances to projects seen as important for economic growth.

However, CSE’s Bhushan said hurried environmental clearances are bad news not only for the environment but also for development, and could lead to more protests and demonstrations by people likely to be affected by the respective infrastructure projects.

Moreover, he added that India’s track record in terms of environmental regulations has been very bad over the past few years. “Our studies have shown that for every one project that is stopped 999 projects are cleared,” he said.

aesha.datta@thehindu.co.in

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