CUTTACK: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has disposed of the matter related to expansion of the Balda block iron mining project in Keonjhar district following submission of an affidavit by the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) indicating commencement of process for recovery of Rs 6 crore environmental compensation (EC) from the private leaseholder company implicated in the case for violating of environmental clearance (EC) conditions.
The matter was taken up after Rama Chandra Mahanta, a resident of Keonjhar district sought the tribunal’s intervention against the private leaseholder company. The petitioner was represented by advocates Sankar Prasad Pani and Ashutosh Padhy.
The judgment order issued by the NGT’s Eastern Zone bench in Kolkata, noted that, the SPCB’s affidavit stated that the company was on May 9, 2024 requested to deposit the environmental compensation amount of `6 crore. But no response has been received in spite of the issuance of reminder on July 22.
The SPCB counsel Papiya Banerjee Bihani informed the tribunal, the regional officer, SPCB, Keonjhar has been asked through a letter on August 5 to initiate action under the Odisha Public Demand Recovery Act before the competent certificate officer for recovery of the environmental compensation amount against the company.
The bench of Justice B Amit Sthalekar (Judicial Member) and Dr Arun Kumar Verma (Expert Member) said, “The State Board shall be at liberty as per law to take action against the private leaseholder company for determination of EC for continuing environmental violations, if any.”
The tribunal had earlier constituted a joint committee consisting of representatives of Central Pollution Control Board and OSPCB and district magistrate Keonjhar, to assess the environmental compensation amount for the EC violations and recovery of the amount.
Accordingly, the joint committee had calculated the environmental compensation amount as Rs 6,00,18,750 and made several other recommendations for protection of ecology and environment of the locality.