CHENNAI: Just words are not enough, Union government should officially annul methane and shale gas projects in the Cauvery delta as a policy decision. This was the argument put forth by the farmers' organisations before the southern bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday in response to the recent statement of Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan at the Economics Editors' Conference in New Delhi.
The green bench was hearing two seperate petitions filed by Cauvery Pasana Kuthagai Vivasayigal Sangam, represented by MDMK general secretary Vaiko and Cauvery Vivasayigal Sangam.
Vaiko alleged that Centre can't be trusted and sought rejection of the application for Terms of Reference (ToR) filed by ONGC for allotment of a well in Nagapattinam district for shale gas exploration, currently pending before the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC). "The cancellation of methane and shale gas projects in Tamil Nadu should be made official by virtue of a policy decision," he told the reporters.
In an interesting development, counsel for Petroleum Ministry MK Subramanian sought a week's time to file the reply. So far, the ministry has chosen to remain silent and didn't file its reply for past two years. This has led to anxiety among the farmers' organisations as to what reply would be.
"On the one hand, oil minister is saying the methane project stands cancelled and there is no activity on shale gas front. Now, the ministry's counsel seeks time to reply. Also, Dharmendra Pradhan has been giving contradictory statements. The ministry has submitted an affidavit few months back in Madras High Court saying methane project is cancelled but later announced that the project was still on and again at the BJP state officethe minister gives different version. He is just confusing the people and playing to the gallery. Now, probably because of Thanjavur election he has come out with this new statement," said Siva Rajasekharan, counsel for PR Pandian of Cauvery Vivasayigal Sangam.
GM Syed Nurullah Sheriff, counsel for MoEF&CC, told Express that the ministry has already made it clear that only an application for ToR filed by ONGC was pending. One location has identified in Kuthalam area in Nagapattinam for preliminary investigation. "ONGC request seeking amendment to ToR for already granted environment clearance has been rejected," he said.