Another Jolt To JSW Steel Project In Odisha As HC Stays Forest Land Diversion

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has stayed diversion of forest land for JSW Utkal Steel Limited’s integrated steel plant along with a thermal power plant, a cement plant and a captive jetty at Dhinkia in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district.

A division bench of Justices Arindam Sinha and S K Mishra said that the land alienation for the Rs 65,000 crore greenfield steel project cannot be take up till the provisions under the Schedule Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 are complied with.

“There must first be compliance with requisites made in a circular dated 3 August, 2009 issued by Government of India, Ministry of Environment and Forests. For this purpose, the State will move the Ministry of Environment and Forest in the Central Government to further their intention of alienation, in compliance with the requirements. Till compliance of the requirements, including recognition of traditional forest dwellers, is complete as filed in the lease cases, they will remain stayed,” the bench said in its March 24 order, while hearing a petition filed by Manas Bardhan and 23 others living in the project area.

The proposed project site, also known as Dhinkia Chaaridesh, comprises eight villages spreading over three Gram Panchayats, namely Dhinkia, Nuagaon, and Gadkujang and the adjacent forest lands. The area is home to 22,000 people with a significant number of Dalits, the petition stated.

A JSW spokesperson said the company officials were studying the orders and would be able to comment on it immediately.

Land requirement for the proposed project site is 1,206 hectares, of which 136.47 hectares is non-forest land and 1069.53-hectare forest land. Only 104.81 hectares have been handed over to JSW so far, reports said.

Last week, a four-member bench of the National Green Tribunal, headed by its chairperson justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, ordered for suspension of the environment clearance granted to the project for three months on the grounds of it being granted without considering the cumulative environment impact assessment, evaluation of permissibility of sourcing water from Mahanadi river and social impact assessment after public hearing among other issues. The Ministry of Environments and Forests has been asked to do a fresh appraisal during this period.