Odisha plans to restore coastal green cover
Uprooted trees in Puri. Nearly 22 lakh trees have been destroyed in the cyclone in Odisha.Biswaranjan Rout Cyclone Fani-hit State aims at planting over 1.3 crore saplings as per a five-year scheme
Uprooted trees in Puri. Nearly 22 lakh trees have been destroyed in the cyclone in Odisha.Biswaranjan Rout Cyclone Fani-hit State aims at planting over 1.3 crore saplings as per a five-year scheme
World Bank funded Odisha State Roads Project (OSRP) is suffering a cost escalation of Rs 623.68 crore, marred by delay in work execution by contractors. The total project cost which was initially estimated at Rs 1431.19 crore has now been revised to Rs 1938.6 crore in accordance with a restructuring proposal prepared by the state government as per the stipulations and guidelines of the bank. The restructuring plan has been duly considered and approved by the state level empowered committee constituted to oversee the implementation of OSRP.
Stung by criticism that tribals and farmers are being uprooted to make way for industrial projects, the Orissa government has scaled down its land acquisition drive. Companies too have begun cutting down
Agitators ask Patnaik government to withdraw project from locality Hundreds of villagers staged a rally at Gobindpur village of Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district on Monday to reiterate their strong opposition to a fresh move by the Naveen Patnaik government to acquire land for the proposed Posco mega steel plant project. The villagers, who gathered at Dhinkia village despite heavy rains, told the administration and the company to refrain from making attempts to create divisions among the villagers.
The state energy department has urged Power Finance Corporation (PFC) to obtain no objection certificate from the Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO) for setting up the coastal Ultra Mega Power Plant (UMPP) at Bijayapatna under Chandbali tehsil in Bhadrak district. The site has been zeroed in for the second UMPP in the state after field visits by PFC officials. PFC, the nodal agency for implementation of UMPPs, had also identified a few sites in Bolangir and Kalahandi districts for establishment of the third UMPP. Each of these UMPPs would have a capacity of 4,000 MW and are being taken up at an estimated investment of Rs 20,000 crore.
Bhusan Steel Limited (BSL), which runs a 3.1 million tonne steel plant at Meramundali, Dhenkanal district is in soup for going ahead with expansion work without environmental clearance. The Dhenkanal district collector has filed a case against the company in the local sub divisional judicial magistrate (SDJM) court for violation of the provisions of the Environmental Protection Act (EPA).
Odisha expects to get additional revenue of Rs 1000 crore from the proposed forest development tax (FDT). The FDT is set to be levied at the rate of 15 per cent on sale value of minerals raised on forest land. "The finalization of FDT will need an inter-departmental consultative process involving the departments of forest & environment, steel & mines and law. The FDT Act has to be amended. There is a possibility of showing minerals raised from forest land as non-forest produce as 200 out of 600 mining leases have a mix of forest and non-forest land. A mechanism has to be worked out to check this”,
The state government has decided that Posco India will have to pay the same price for rehabilitation colony land as it has paid for the project area, following a complaint raised by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). “Steps will be taken to request Posco India to pay equivalent compensation as paid in the case of rate of private land coming within the project area,” the government said while filing a compliance report on the NHRC complaint regarding the same issue.
With unavailability of coal posing hurdle to 1320 Mw expansion plan of Odisha Power Generation Corporation (OPGC), the only state-owned thermal power generator, the state government has sought interim coal linkage from Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) from its Basundhara group of mines. The government has requested MCL to provide interim coal requirement to the tune of 16 million tonnes to OPGC to feed two new units of 660 Mw each over a period of three years from the Basundhara group of mines beginning from the later part of 2016-17, when the expansion project is expected to go on stream.
Posco-India, which had initially proposed to invest $12 billion to set up a 12-million-tonne per annum (MTPA) steel plant on 4,004 acres of land near Paradip in Orissa, has submitted a revised proposal to the state government seeking transfer of 2,700 acre land in its favour for establishing a 8 MTPA factory. “Recently the revised proposal for Ac 2700.00 land was given by Posco India for establishment of 8 MTPA steel plant,” the state government said while submitting the latest status report on India’s biggest foreign direct investment project to the Central government.
Patnaik Steel and Alloys, a subsidiary of Patnaik Minerals, the lease holder of Banachapani iron ore mine in Keonjhar district, has been found to have violated several forest and environment rules. This is revealed from an enquiry conducted by the State Director of Mines into the issue. “The matter has been enquired into by officers of Directorate of Mines and basing on their report and verification, the following irregularities have been noticed along with other violations,” the state steel and mines department said while asking the state revenue and environment ministry to initiate action against the miner.