Repeat of Posco in Uttarakhand

In repeat of Posco inquiry, a committee to look into issues raised by Uma Bharati to save Dhara Devi temple in Uttarakhand has given a fragmented version.

Updated on: Jun 24, 2011, 15:59:21 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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In repeat of Posco inquiry, a committee to look into issues raised by Uma Bharati to save Dhara Devi temple in Uttarakhand has given a fragmented version.

The official and non-official members of the committee had given separate reports showing a clear division on action they propose to save the temple and enforcement of environmental rules to allow increasing the scope of 330 MW Srinagar Hydro Electricity Project.

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh had earlier this month had got construction of the dam on Alakananda river stopped after Bharati wrote a protest letter against submergence of the temple to Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

He constituted a three member inquiry committee having two ministry officials and Navanjot Lahiri, a Delhi University professor to suggest measures to save the temple and submit a compliance report on environmental conditions imposed when the project was cleared in 1996.

The ministry officials submitted one report whereas Lahiri submitted another with differing views this week.

Lahiri took a strong objection to the committee members meeting the locals in presence of project proponents Alakananda Hydro Power Limited (AHPL) resulting in they agreeing with the project, except Bharat Jhunjunwala, who had also filed a petition against the project in Uttarakhand High Court.

The official members S Das and Sanchita Jindal observed that Jhunjunwala was opposed to the project whereas majority of locals including presidents of 10 gram panchayasts supported the project.

Lahiri took a contrary view to official members, who agreed with project proponents that the temple can be elevated using concrete pillars and said there was no need to review it as temple management agreed with it.

“Until alternative plan is prepared and shared with the temple management, no further work should be done at Dhara Devi temple site,” she said, in her separate report.

Lahiri also differed with view of the official members that there was no need to review environment clearance for increasing the scope of the project from 200 MW to 330 MW and increasing its height from 77 meters to 99 meters. “Dam height is not very sacrosanct for river bed or deepest foundation. Reservoir level is the vital characteristics for project implementation,” the report of official members said. Lahiri said the government should take opinion of the law ministry and should review the project as per environmental norms.

In case of Posco, three non-official members had differed with Meena Gupta, former environment ministry secretary. But, the ministry had finally gone with Gupta’s minority view.

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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