Public hearing for proposed N-plant at Mithi Virdi held amidst protest by villagers

Farmers protest against the public hearing for Mithi Virdi N-plant

By A Representative

In a statement, the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti (PSS) has said that the illegal public hearing was held on March 5, 2013 at 10-30 a.m. at Navagam (Nana) for the proposed Mithi Virdi Nuclear Power Plant “in violation of Environmental Laws and the Constitution of India.” It added, “Around 4,500 people of 28 villages boycotted the environmental public hearing following, breach of promise by government officials.” The statement has also been signed by veteran Gandhian Chunibhai Vaidya of the Gujarat Lok Samiti, and local social activist Bharatbhai Jambucha from Paniyali village, Bhavnagar district.
The statement alleged that the Bhavnagar district collector, who chaired the hearing for the 6,000 MW nuclear power plant, to be set up by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), and A V Shah, regional officer of the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB), made “vital procedural lapses” during the hearing. “When villagers wearing black bands to protest the hearing being held with incomplete Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report entered the venue, they were first prevented, with officials demanding that the black protest ribbons be removed. It is only when the villagers insisted that they were allowed in.”
Interestingly, the statement said, the officials “did not allow” the villagers to make representation about procedural issues of the hearing and instead continued the proceedings with incomplete EIA report prepared by the unaccredited consultants, Engineers India Ltd, as a result “rendering the hearing illegal and in violation of the environment rules and the Constitution of India.”
It further said, Shah, the GPCB official, even promised two activists Rohit Prajapati and Swati Desai just before the proceedings were to start on March 5 that Shaktisinh Gohil, sarpanch of Jasapara would be allowed and representations about procedural lapses can be made by villagers. “But when Gohil rose to make procedural points about the lapses in the EPH, he was prevented from doing so.”
Gohil wished to highlight some major lapses:
1. The EIA report for NPCIL has been prepared by the consultants. According to the consultants’ own admission, the report does not have the requisite ministry of environment and forests accreditation to undertake the Environmental Impact Assessment. The EIA Report is therefore illegal.
2. The consultants’ report is incomplete and the hearing was being held on the basis of incomplete EIA report rendering it illegal as was pointed out earlier to officials repeatedly.
3. There are several instances of incomplete details and TOR (Terms of Reference) in the consultants' report, which was not furnished during the illegal hearing.
4. Only limited villages were be allowed to make oral representation.

Villagers at the public hearing site

5. The Bhavnagar district collector decided not to allow the rest of 128 villages and other environmental experts to make oral representations and instead directed that they make their case only in writing. This is in clear violation of the Delhi High Court order in the case of Samarth Trust and Other v Union of India & Others W.P.(C) 9317 of 2009, where it has opined that “….prima facie, that so far as a public hearing is concerned, its scope is limited and confined to those locally affected persons residing in the close proximity of the project site. However, in our opinion, the Notification does not preclude or prohibit persons not living in the close proximity of the project site from participating in the public hearing – they too are permitted to participate and express their views for or against the project.”
The statement charges, "The authorities without allowing the villagers to raise points on procedural lapses directed the company officials to represent the incomplete EIA report. Around 4,500 villagers of 29 villages as a result walked out of the illegal hearing’s proceedings as they did not want to become party to illegal proceedings. The officials stopped the EIA report presentation halfway asking the villagers to stay back, but they refused on grounds of it being illegal and procedural illegalities."
In this framework, the statement said, “The villagers are now contemplating legal action against the authorities for organizing the hearing even when several lapses were pointed out well in advance as well as during the hearing proceedings.”
Meanwhile, the NGO said, the consultants have managed to receive a purported letter allowing them to do an EIA, but it has "no legal basis". “Since the EIA was prepared before the letter was received, the EIA would still be invalid, especially because no such letter was published in the EIA report”.
The procedural issues in writing were also handed over to the authorities by the sarpanches of 10 villages from Bhavnagar district – Shaktisinh Gohil of Jasapara, Amuben Dabhi of Mithi Virdi, Lagdirsinh Gohil of Paniyali, Pruthvirajsinh Gohil of Khadarpar, Vilasba Dharmendrasinh Gohil of Mandva, Bhagvatsinh Gohil, of Sosiya, Ramubha Gohil of Navagam (Nana), Liliben Zinabhai of Goriyali, Gobarbhai Solanki of Rampar (Garibpura), and Dakshaben Makwana of Bharapara.

Comments

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

The greatest threat to our food system: The aggressive push for GM crops

By Bharat Dogra Thanks to the courageous resistance of several leading scientists who continue to speak the truth despite increasing pressures from the powerful GM crop and GM food lobby , the many-sided and in some contexts irreversible environmental and health impacts of GM foods and crops, as well as the highly disruptive effects of this technology on farmers, are widely known today.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...

From colonial mercantilism to Hindutva: New book on the making of power in Gujarat

By Rajiv Shah Professor Ghanshyam Shah ’s latest book, “ Caste-Class Hegemony and State Power: A Study of Gujarat Politics ”, published by Routledge , is penned by one of Gujarat ’s most respected chroniclers, drawing on decades of fieldwork in the state. It seeks to dissect how caste and class factors overlap to perpetuate the hegemony of upper strata in an ostensibly democratic polity. The book probes the dominance of two main political parties in Gujarat—the Indian National Congress and the BJP—arguing that both have sustained capitalist growth while reinforcing Brahmanic hierarchies.

'Restructuring' Sahitya Akademi: Is the ‘Gujarat model’ reaching Delhi?

By Prakash N. Shah* A fortnight and a few days have slipped past that grim event. It was as if the wedding preparations were complete and the groom’s face was about to be unveiled behind the ceremonial tinsel. At 3 PM on December 18, a press conference was poised to announce the Sahitya Akademi Awards .

Would breaking idols, burning books annihilate caste? Recalling a 1972 Dalit protest

By Rajiv Shah A few days ago, I received an email alert from a veteran human rights leader who has fought many battles in Gujarat for the Dalit cause — both through ground-level campaigns and courtroom struggles. The alert, sent in Gujarati by Valjibhai Patel, who heads the Council for Social Justice, stated: “In 1935, Babasaheb Ambedkar burnt the Manusmriti . In 1972, we broke the idol of Krishna , whom we regarded as the creator of the varna (caste) system.”

Search This Blog