Jaitapur clearance may be reviewed

On the day Environment minister Jairam Ramesh agreed to review the environment clearance to world's biggest nuclear park at Jaitapur in Maharashtra, a German bank withdrew from the project on sustainable management grounds.

Updated on: Mar 15, 2011, 23:34:09 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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On the day Environment minister Jairam Ramesh agreed to review the environment clearance to world biggest nuclear park at Jaitapur in Maharashtra, a German bank withdrew from the project on sustainable management grounds.

“Since business related to nuclear power by process-definition has to be routed through our Reputational & Sustainability Management (RSM), we were sure, that Commerzbank will not invest in this project,” said an email from the bank to international NGO Greenpeace, which has been protesting against the project.

The NGO, however, refused to reveal who from the bank has written the email in response to a query whether the bank has withdrawn from the project.

A consortium of 15 banks mainly from France and HSBC of UK had pledged to bear about 70% of the cost of the Jaitapur nuclear power project being commissioned by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) in collaboration with French company Areva. Commerzbank is the first bank to withdraw its financial commitment for the project.

Environment clearance to the 6,000 MW Jaitapur nuclear plant in November had evoked strong protest with locals alleging that the clearance was granted without studying the radiation impact on local population.

The Environment Impact Assessment done by a Nagpur based government organization did not cover the radiology impacts in its study. The Atomic Energy Board, regulator for nuclear energy in India, is looking at the radiation impact.

On Tuesday, Ramesh acknowledged that the radiation impact has not been studied and said his ministry was looking at adding more environmental safeguards but refused to revoke the environment clearance.

“Based on the technical reviews done by NPCIL, we will certainly be in touch with them and if additional safeguards have to be built in as part of the environmental clearance, we will certainly look at it,” Ramesh said.

Concerns have been raised over the Jaitapur plant following radiation leaks from nuclear plant in Japan following a Tsunami on last Friday. The radiation leaks in Fukushima is said to be second worst to Chernobyl nuclear tragedy, which took place quarter a century ago.

The environment minister said the Prime Minister had made a detailed presentation on safety of nuclear plants in Parliament on Monday and NPCIL was looking at this aspect.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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