Majority Report of the Committee Constituted to ... - Forest Rights Act

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Majority Report of the POSCO Enquiry Committee (Dr. Urmila Pingle, Dr. Devendra Pandey, Dr. V. Suresh) Executive Summary 1. The Government of Orissa and Pohang Steel Company (POSCO), Republic of Korea signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on June 22, 2005 for setting up an Integrated Steel Plant of a total capacity of 12 million tonnes per annum in Orissa at Paradeep, in Jagatsinghpur district. By establishing an Indian Company as POSCO- India, it would develop and operate the Steel Plant to produce a total of 12 MT starting 4MT in first Phase with a proposed investment of Rs 51,000 crores or 12 billion US$. The integrated steel plant includes captive power plant and a captive minor port. The plant would be located on the northwestern bank of the Jatadharmohan river creek 12 km south of the Paradeep Port requiring a total of 1620.496 hectares of land of which 1253.225 hectares is forest land and would affect 8 villages of three Gram Panchayats of Erasama block, Kujang Tahsil. The MOU also envisaged that the company would develop and operate , (i) Mining Project in areas allocated by the government of Orissa / Government of India (ii) Transportation Project which includes a dedicated railway line, road and Port (iii) Integrated township and (iv) Water Supply infrastructure or the Water Project 2. After the MOU, POSCO-India commissioned studies on rapid environment impact assessment (REIA) of steel plant (only for 4 MT) along with captive power plant and separately for captive minor port. The studies were completed in two-three months along with survey for demarcating CRZ areas during August to November 2005 and got environment management plan (EMP) prepared through M/s M.N. Dastur & Company (P) ltd. The Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India gave CRZ and Environment Clearance for the Captive Minor Port on 15 may 2007 and that of Integrated Steel Plant with Captive Power Plant on 19 July 2007. The Ministry also granted in-principle (stage I) clearance for diverting 1253.225 ha forest land for the project on 19 September 2008 under Forest Conservation (FC) Act 1980 stipulating a set of conditions for compliance before final clearance. 3. In the mean time Forest Rights Act 2006 for the Scheduled Tribes (ST) and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTFD) became operational from January 2008. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) issued circular on 3 Aug 2009 to all the States/UT mandating compliance with Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006 where proposals for diverting forest land for non-forestry purpose are processed. State
governments were asked to provide certificates about the completion of the FRA process in the concerned areas along with supporting letter from each Gram Sabha as well as letter of consent or rejection from the Gram Sabha about the proposed project. In the case of POSCO-India, after receiving the letter of compliance of conditions of stage I clearance the MoEF issued final forest clearance under FC Act 1980 on 29 Dec 2009 with a condition that rights of the ST/OTFD should be settled before implementation of the project. Though Orissa government furnished a certificate to the MoEF about the completion of FRA process, there was no certificate from the Gram Sabha. 4. From the day the MOU was signed there has been large scale protests against the project by local inhabitants whose livelihood is going to be adversely affected due to displacement. The number of petitions to the Central Government increased after the approval of the project because besides livelihood, the Orissa government reportedly violated the FRA in the project area as mentioned by Mr. D. Raja, Member of Parliament and a large number of NGOs. In July, 2010 some members of the FRA monitoring committee jointly constituted by MoEF and Ministry of Tribal Affairs visited the villages to be affected by the project in Jagatsinghpur district, Orissa. They submitted a report dated 24 th July, 2010 highlighting violations of the FRA in the POSCO project area. 5. The MoEF appointed this four member committee on 28 July 2010 to enquire into the status of implementation of FRA in and around forest land of the POSCO project and rehabilitation and resettlement provisions. Subsequently, the committee was asked to review the environment, CRZ and other clearances also given by MOEF and state and local authorities. In the mean time MoEF directed the Orissa government on 5 Aug 2010 to stop all the works undertaken in the project area. 6. This committee conducted intensive enquiry by consulting a large number of documents, field visits and meeting a large number of people (including officials of Orissa government, local affected inhabitants, NGOs and civil society and experts in concerned fields). The findings of the committee are mentioned in the following paragraphs. A. Implementation of the Forest Rights Act 2006
Page 1: Majority Report of the Committee Co
Page 5 and 6: for claims after constitution of FR
Page 7 and 8: have worked with people, to help in
Page 9 and 10: 29. Concerns regarding the impact o
Page 11 and 12: coordinates it would be impossible
Page 13 and 14: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PREFACE CONTENTS
Page 15 and 16: as a whole (as opposed to for the i
Page 17 and 18: INTRODUCTION- Time Line of Events P
Page 19 and 20: government to hear all the applicat
Page 21 and 22: II. Recommendations of the Central
Page 23 and 24: V. Forest clearance given without c
Page 25 and 26: These Palli Sabha proceedings only
Page 27 and 28: ii) Investigation and ascertainment
Page 29 and 30: The Sairat income of the estate was
Page 31 and 32: V. Rights of `encroachers’ not se
Page 33 and 34: in the Schedule annexed hereto whic
Page 35 and 36: 9. Karonj Pongamia glabra 10. Sanar
Page 37: subdivision is supplied with betel
Page 40 and 41: 5. Aquaculture Ponds 0.79 0.20 6. A
Page 42 and 43: are interpreted as the remnants of
Page 44 and 45: VI. Impact of loss of coastal mangr
Page 46 and 47: to keep them at a middle income cla
Page 48 and 49: 25. Another source of income is fro
Page 50 and 51: vi) Status of ownership showed that
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v) All families in these villages (
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SECTION 3 Forest Rights and the For
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(4) He goes on to say that under su
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one must note that this is not limi
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proviso to section 29(3) and theref
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20. It must first be noted that whe
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obtained by the resident tenants at
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of Polanga lies within the project
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esolutions in the registers but onl
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53. In light of the above, the Comm
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(4) District Welfare Officer (5) Th
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68. It is not clear if the resoluti
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anywhere in the State after June 20
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- Both points have certified by the
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3) Finally, the certification of co
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98. The Committee finds that, even
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112. The Orissa government's takeov
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extent to which the Orissa R & R Po
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(wherever applicable) in the Commit
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18. Approximately 32 villages, most
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Majority Report of the POSCO Enquir
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the minor port. It is against this
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12. The tests for evaluating adequa
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Paradeep port area in a region desc
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26. The proposed project is to set
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33. The Schedule to the 2006 Notifi
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August 2006 (Annexure E - 3 ) as pe
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een annexed to the main text.” On
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54.The committee members are of the
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fragile coastal area which has repe
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Board should stipulate appropriate
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67. In the Letter No. WP-IWS-135/07
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ii) Coastal Regulation Zone map ind
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78. As far as the impact on the Pra
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from the site. Since mangrove veget
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potential hazardous units in this r
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photographs and voucher would be pr
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a) The project is highly significan
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have not been followed through by t
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dispensed with in the peculiar fact
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conduct of public hearings is elabo
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n Impact Identificatio n Mitigation
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hazards and affect their livelihood
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ecause of other industries in the a
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2 Dredging would affect Atharbanki
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6 Dredging of sand dumping it in th
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were accepted or negatived. Failure
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118. As per the Interim Operational
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Para 14.0 Para 15.0 Par a 15. 0 Par
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Director, Department of Disinvestme
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Officials has committed any mistake
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For these amongst other reasons, th
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Introduction Section 6 Compliance o
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Some activities are permissible wit
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provided by POSCO-India Pvt Ltd and
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5th December, 1989; except transfer
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Location of slag yard in CRZ area p
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that any of these issues were discu
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In view of the above observations t
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Conclusions and Recommendations Par
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9. Though the MoEF is not the nodal
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concerned authorities to such poten
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As this report has demonstrated, wh
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A. Preparation of EIA. 1. EIA shoul
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e available to members of public el
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REFERENCES / ANNEXURES Annexure No.
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2010 Report. A-26 July 27 th , U.N.
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FRA and compliance. C-7 July, 2004
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Ghauj Jungle, Plot Nos. 1293 & 1294
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Members in Bhubaneshwar E - 18 4.10
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Annexure - H : CRZ serious concerns
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Finance Minister, GoO. Note : The c
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