PROJECT PROMOTER’S RESIGNATION FROM MEF COMMITTEE

PROJECT PROMOTER’S RESIGNATION FROM MEF COMMITTEE WELCOME

ENVIRONMENT MINISTER’S PROMPT ACTION SETS THE TREND:

REVIEW CRUCIAL DECISIONS OF ABRAHAM COMMITTEE

We welcome the resignation of Mr. P. Abraham from the chairmanship of the MEF Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) on River Valley and Hydropower projects which was announced in a press conference by the Union Minister of State for Environment & Forests (Independent Charge), Mr. Jairam Ramesh, on June 26^th. In a letter dated June 12^thaddressed to the Environment Minister (Annexure 1) we had pointed out the ‘conflict of interest’ in Mr. Abraham chairing this crucial committee which takes decisions on dams and hydroelectric projects seeking environmental clearance. Mr. Abraham is on the board of several power companies’ whose projects come before the EAC for environmental clearance. On June 22^nd the MoEF sought afresh the bio-datas of all chairpersons and members of the various EACs, including information on ‘conflict of interest.’

We appreciate the prompt initiative of the Environment Minister in this case. We would like to reiterate that crucial decisions taken by the Abraham committee in the past two years need to be reviewed as suggested in our letter dated June 12^th. Not a single project was rejected by this committee on merit and all projects were either granted pre-construction or environmental clearances, in spite of serious concerns raised in many of them by civil society groups. Some examples of these questionable decisions include (illustrative, not a comprehensive list):

1. Illegal subversion of an April 2007 National Environmental Appellate Authority (NEAA) order which asks for advance cumulative impact studies of multiple dams coming up in a river basin. Where river basin studies have been prescribed (e.g. Bichom and Lohit rivers in Arunachal Pradesh), these have been ‘delinked’ from the clearance of individual projects (belonging primarily to private sector companies, including in one case where Mr. Abraham is on the board of one of the promoter companies).

2. Pre-construction clearance granted to the 520 MW Teesta IV project in Sikkim, even though this is on the last free-flowing stretch of the main Teesta River in Sikkim, as established in letters to the EAC.

3. Decision that the Damanganga Pinjal River Link proposal does not require Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) studies or environment clearance, even though it involves massive dams.

4. Environmental clearance granted to the 1500 MW Tipaimukh project, even after accepting that the EIA report was shoddy and that further studies are still required. This project requires the submergence of 26,000 hectares of forest and the felling of 83 lakh trees.

5. Decision to ask for public hearings for the Polavaram project in affected areas of Chhattisgarh and Orissa without first conducting full and proper EIA studies in these areas.

6. Refusal to prescribe detailed ‘downstream impact assessment’ studies in over two dozen hydel projects in the Northeast (both private and public sector), even though the issue has been repeatedly raised by groups in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and elsewhere.

We urge the MEF to do a comprehensive review of such decisions of the Abraham committee in a transparent manner and take appropriate actions. Such a review is necessary to restore credibility into the environmental decision-making process.

Tseten Lepcha, Affected Citizens of Teesta (ACT), cten00@gmail.com

Tone Mickrow, All Idu Mishmi Students Union (AIMSU),mickrowx@gmail.com

Keshoba K Chatradhara, Peoples Movement for Subansiri-Brahmaputra Valley, kkchatradhara@gmail.com

Bamang Anthony, Arunachal Citizens Rights (ACR), acr2000@gmail.com

Ravindranath, River Basin Friends, riverbasinfriends@yahoo.co.in

Mite Lingi, Idu Cultural and Literary Society (ICLS), drlingi@yahoo.co.in

Gopal Krishna, Waterwatch Alliance, krishnagreen@gmail.com

Neeraj Vagholikar, Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group (09822021371)nvagho@gmail.com

Vimalbhai, Matu Jansangathan, Uttarakhand matuporg@gmail.com

Himanshu Thakkar, South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers & People (09968242798) ht.sandrp@gmail.com

__._,_.___