Bhubaneswar:
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has continued its ban on drawing of water
from the River Vaitarani and any kind of construction work by the river side by
Essar Steel and Brahmani River Pellets (BRPL) Ltd.
Hearing two separate
petitions against the two companies on last Monday, the tribunal has upheld its
previous ban order till the next hearing on April 12th.
On
behalf of the petitioner Murli Manohar Sharma, senior advocate Bibhu Prasad
Tripathy and Gobardhan Pujari argued that Essar has been continuously violating
the green norms.
The company has obstructed the natural flow of Vaitarani water
by constructing an intake wall inside the river bed.
The state water resources
department on last December had also directed the company to remove the construction from the river bed.
Last
December NGT has issued notice to Essar Steel and BRPL for alleged violation of
green norms. Essar has been planning to transport iron ore through pipeline
from Keonjhar to its plant site at Paradeep using the Vaiarani River water.
Protesting this Sarbeswar Mishra and Murlidhar Sharma of the “Vaitarani Bachao
Andolan†had filed a petition in the NGT.
The bench had observed that the
company has violated the terms and conditions of the MoU with the Odisha
Government by mining and using the river
water without the Environmental Clearance and directed the company to stop the
project work till getting the environmental and forest clearances.
NGT
has also continued its ban on drawing of
water from the river ‘Vaitarani’ for the Brahmani River Pellets Ltd (BRPL) who
is putting up a beneficiation plant in Barbil and slurry pipeline from Barbil to
its 4 pellet plant site at Kalinganagar in Jajpur District.
The
State government has allotted water from Vaitarani to industries like BRPL,
Essar Jindal Steel and Power etc.
However the local people under the banner of
Vaitarni Bachao Andolan (VBA) are opposing the government decision, fearing
scarcity of water for drinking and Agricultural purposes.
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