NDA government's decisions helped Vedanta bypass public consultations for the Copper smelter expansion in Thoothukudi
The controversial expansion of Vedanta's 1,200 tonnes per day copper smelter in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu has been stayed by the High Court on May 23 after at least 11 people protesting against the plant were shot dead by state police. The court has ordered that the company consult people before building the plant - something the company claimed it was legally not required to do.
Vedanta claims it had legally got an environmental clearance from the Union government to expand the smelter to double the capacity without consulting people. A perusal of Union environment ministry’s and several court records show the NDA government made an interpretation to green regulations in December 2014, which helped particularly plants such as that of Vedanta's at
Thoothukudi to be built without consulting people of the project-affected area.
This exception in the environmental safety regulations was made on the request of various industries, show court and government documents reviewed by Business Standard. The exception to the rules was carved out through orders of the then environment minister and called a ‘clarification’. This clarification would in months ahead allow Vedanta and several others to start constructing their plants, such as the one in Thoothukudi, without public consultations. This interpretation by the NDA government was fortuitous for companies because the environment ministry under UPA government had insisted in May 2014 that projects such as Vedanta’s in Thoothukudi were required by law to first go through public consultations.
In 2016 the National Green Tribunal found, the December orders of the NDA government, which favoured Vedanta, to be illegal. It had to go to the point of threatening bailable orders against the environment ministry officials in the case to divulge information on the matter. Ministry officials said rescinding the government’s December 2014 orders would adversely impact many projects.
Eventually, the NGT quashed the December 2014 orders. On the NGT’s instructions, the ministry had to pass fresh orders clearly stating that projects in industrial parks without environmental clearances needed to conduct public hearings.
But, by then Vedanta had secured an extension of the green clearance to its expansion project in Thoothukudi without the need for a public hearing.
It is citing this 2016 ruling of the National Green Tribunal and other facts that came to light during the case, that the High Court on Wednesday has ordered Vedanta to stop its expansion plans in track and go back to first consult the people.
The usual green clearance regulations
Almost all large scale industrial projects require a mandatory environmental clearance from the Union environment ministry. The project developer first prepares a report laying out how the industry would impact the people and environment in the vicinity of the project site. It then presents this report to public for consultations under the supervision of the state government. Experts of the Union environment ministry study the results of these consultations and the environmental impact assessment to decide if the project should be given a nod or not. People cannot veto the project during consultations but their concerns have to be addressed by the company and the Union government before the project can take off.
The environment clearance regulations, dating back to 2006, make exceptions to the need for public hearing in select cases. If a small industry is set up inside designated industrial park, which itself has an environmental clearance, then the specific industry is allowed to bypass public consultations.
During the United Progressive Alliance government's tenure in May 2014 questions were raised with the government about this exception. What if the industrial park is established so long ago that it came up before the environmental regulations of 2006 were in place and the industrial park itself has no environmental clearance? Would industries in such cases too not need to consult the project-affected people?
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