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Environmentalists on Thursday urged the Environmental Appraisal Committee (EAC) not to give clearance to the Jindal Steel Works’s (JSW’s) proposed steel plant in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district before an independent assessment is carried out to study the project’s health impact.
An approval by the EAC – under the Union Environment Ministry – is a must for the project to go ahead. The panel is expected meet on Friday to discuss the steel plant.
They said that the proposed steel plant should not be given clearance based on the project’s Environment Impact Assessment, prepared by a private firm engaged by JSW, as the report was inaccurate.
Instead, they cited a recently released report by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), which said that the EIA missed out on accounting for incremental particulate matter, mercury, any other heavy metal and secondary particulate matter. The report adds that the steel plant will kindle air pollution in the region and result in “severe health impacts” in the district’s Dhinkia and Paradip areas.
Particulate matter, or PM, are atmospheric pollutants that can be hazardous to human health.
Based on the findings of the CREA report, six environmentalists wrote in a letter to the EAC chairperson Dr Chhavi Nath Pandey and addressed it to the 15-member committee.
“This is to bring to your notice that the EIA report prepared for the proposed JSW Utkal Steel Limited is nothing but to merely justify the project, rather assess the impact on the environment. There have been severe discrepancies while conducting the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report for JSW Utkal Steel Limited’s proposed project site near Paradip port in Jagatsinhpur district,” the letter said.
“We have demanded an independent assessment based on understanding the comprehensive environment and health impacts of the proposed project on the surrounding areas, including human settlements, to be carried out before proceeding further,” Odisha-based environmentalist Prafulla Samantara, one of the signatories in the letter, said.
Locals have also opposed the plan, saying the project will not benefit them at all and the company was “after our land and resources”.
Source: indianexpress
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