The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has asked the Ministry to take a call on taking action against officials for concealing information while uploading the draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) for the 1x660 MW Ennore Supercritical Thermal Power Project on the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board’s (TNPCB) website.
In a stinging rebuke to the project proponent, Tangedco, the State’s power utility, and the TNPCB, the EAC said the Environmental Clearance for the expansion project was granted on the assumption that the EIA report was uploaded on theTNPCB website for a period of one month and had received no comments from the public.
The EAC’s observations came on an application filed by the Tangedco seeking certain amendments to the EC granted for the project on December 11, 2019. One of the amendments sought was to change a paragaraph (6) where it was written that “draft EIA has been uploaded on Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) website for seeking comments / concerns from the public.”
The Tangedco sought an amendment seeking to change this to “draft EIA has been uploaded on MoEF&CC website which is accessible by public to view and offer their comments/concerns.”
The Tangedco had argued that there was no scope to upload the EIA report on the TNPCB website since public hearing for the project was exempted by the MoEF through a letter dated July 10, 2019.
Noting the sequence of events when the project proponent made its presentations to the Committee before the grant of the EC, it said that the TNPCB had informed the committee, based on Tangedco’s request, in a letter dated September 18, 2019, that it had not received any comments from the public after uploading the EIA report on its website.
However, when the Tangedco approached the EAC for amendments, the EAC found, on close scrutiny of the letter given by the TNPCB, the Tangedco had approached the pollution control board only one day before, on September 17, 2019 and “and the TNPCB provided a reply on September 18, 2019. Hence, the comments from the public cannot be obtained in two days,” the EAC noted.
It further found that Tangedco had not produced any letter that they had approached the TNPCB after obtaining ToR (Terms of Reference) or PH (public hearing) exemption letter. “But, Committee can make out that M/s Tangedco has concealed the information,” it said.
The EAC said only after obtaining the EC, the Tangedco said there was no scope to upload the draft EIA on the TNPCB website. While it has considered the amendment sought by the Tangedco, it has not been approved, the committee said. It also said the MoEF can take a call with regard to taking action against the officers responsible for concealing information.
