MEETING HELD ON 18th-19th JUNE 2012 IN SCOPE COMPLE

38and green belt development should be avoided as it maycontaminate the soil/ecology of area, which would becomedegraded into a ‘salt pan’. The Committee desired that the minewater with high levels of TDS be treated in a RO Plant or usingUS based technology and a safe method of disposal of the brinesludge in concrete lined pits or sold to consumers for which along term MOU should be entered into. The Committee desiredthat a provision of Rs 5 crores or 0.4% of the total capital costs(whichever is higher) should be earmarked for CSR and aCorpus Fund created for the maintenance activities.The Committee after discussions decided to further consider theproject upon furnishing a detailed Risk Assessment-cum-Disaster Management Plan for the actual quantum of watercoming out/discharge. In addition, multiple strategies should beworked out for the treatment and disposal of brine water andsludge and presented before the Committee.”1.3 The proposal for Environmental Clearance (EC) based on TOR for open castmining (0.5MTPA in an ML area of 350 ha) of Nimbri - Chandwatan Lignite blockallotted to M/S Binani Cement Ltd. by the Ministry of Coal for captive use in thelinked TPP at Sirohi was reconsidered by the present EAC (T&C) in its meetingheld on 29 th -30 th August 2011. The EAC recommended the project for EC, butthe Hon’ble MEF desired necessary clarifications on the nature of waterbodiesfound in ML area based on the representations along with photo album submittedby locals as to whether waterbodies represent wetlands or not. Ministry got theissue examined by an expert (Dr Asha Rajvanshi) from Wildlife Institute of India,Dehradun. After examining the photographs depicting waterbodies and theirsurroundings submitted to the Hon’ble MEF by locals, the Expert from WIIexpressed that the pictures of waterbodies in photo album do not representunique habitat or important wetland areas (vide email 23 rd April 2010). Based onthe information furnished by the WII expert, the file was resubmitted by theMinistry officials to Hon’ble MEF on 01 November 2011 for her kind approval ofEC to the project.1.4 It was decided by MoEF that the views of the Space Application Centre (SAC),Ahmadabad should also be sought as it was involved in the preparation of‘Wetlands Atlas’. Accordingly the matter was discussed with the projectproponent who approached the SAC for mapping wetlands in the ML area (videBCL/NLM/SAC/2011/392 dated 2 nd December 2011). The Space ApplicationCentre (vide, email of 3 rd February 2012) provided the maps of ML area depictingthe wetlands. The SAC referred to the waterbodies as wetlands and mentionedthat there were 13 wetlands within ML area, of which 11 were less than 2.25 hain size and two wetlands were more than 2.25 ha in size.