Fresh setback to top state PSU: Gujarat's KG adventure again fails to get environmental, CRZ clearance

By Our Representative
The Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC), the premier state public sector undertaking (PSU), has again failed to get environmental and coastal regulatory zone (CRZ) clearance for its proposed onshore gas terminal, a 20 MW captive power plant, 20 underground gas pipelines along with optical fibre cable (OFC), and 10 inches effluent disposal pipeline -- of which it badly needs for commercial production of KG basin gas it struck several years ago. Some of these facilities were to pass through CRZ area of Yanam-Puducherry along the Andhra Pradesh coast. It simultaneously failed to get clearance for its offshore process-cum-living quarter platform in KG Basin in Andhra sea, where the top PSU had claimed in 2005 to have found 20 trillion cubic metres (tcf) of gas -- a claim which has been questioned.
The issue came up on agenda before the Environmental Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) a few days back, which noted that as the GSPC has so far not obtained EAC (thermal) clearance for its captive power plant and Andhra Pradesh Coastal Zone Management Authority (APCZMA) clearance for several other facilities, it cannot recommend construction work to commence for these facilities. This is the second time in three months that the GSPC's proposals have been deferred. According to GSPC insiders, it is a major setback for the state PSU, which wanted early implementation of the Rs 2,030 crore facilities, needed for commercial production of less than 2 tcf of gas it has finally unearthed, as against the earlier claim of 20 tcf.
A previous meeting of the EAC in May, too, had asked the GSPC to “defer” construction commercial facilities until certain conditions were fulfilled. It refused to give blanket CRZ clearance for laying down underground gas pipeline, optical fibre cable (OFC), an effluent disposal pipeline, and process-cum-living quarter platform and captive power plant – all of which would require CRZ clearance, as these facilities are to be part of the Yanam-Puducherry coastal region. The GSPC wanted all these to be cleared together but the EAC ruled against it, asking the GSPC to make separate applications.
The EAC note, which refused the CRZ clearance, regretted in May how, without necessary clearances, the GSPC began "physical construction work for field development." It wanted the GSPC to submit: (1) details of the critical environmental issues identified during laying of pipeline, (2) environment clearance for enhancement of captive power plant, under consideration of environmental appraisal committee (EAC) of the thermal committee, which has also sought examining the requirement of wildlife clearance in view of Coringa Sanctuary located in 2.5 km distance, and (3) the plan of the pipeline to pass through the mangroves. Based on these observations, it recommended to defer the proposal. "The proposal shall be reconsidered after the above observations are addressed and submitted”, the note said.
The EAC decision to ask the GSPC to defer its Rs 2,030 crore worth of facilities comes after the Andhra Pradesh government took strong objection to the GSPC for failing to take necessary forest and wildlife clearances for its proposed facilities and kickstarting construction work. It asked GSPC executives to “stop work” of laying down a crucial submarine pipeline to take gas from KG Basin to its onshore gas terminal via an area which is inside 10 km of the Corianga sanctuary without necessary clearances. It wanted to know “why action shouldn’t be taken” for violating forest and wildlife laws.
Insiders said, GSPC executives goofed up as they demanded environmental clearance and thought that was “enough.” After nearly two years, its top bosses found that environmental clearance was not enough, and that forest and wildlife clearance, as also CRZ clearance, under their respective Central laws, would also need to be taken, without which KG Basin gas cannot reach onshore gas terminal. “Hectic preparations began to prepare papers”, a senior official said, adding, “The delay in failing to take necessary clearances will mean commercial production of KG Basin gas will have to be postponed by at least two years. ” The notice to “stop work” was delivered after GSPC failed to respond to two earlier warnings.
The work for the Rs 2,030 crore onshore gas terminal was under progress at Mallavaram, and nearly 30 per cent of it had been complete. Under instructions of chief minister Narendra Modi, the terminal, it is said, was put on fast track, with the expectation that ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2014, GSPC would go into full-scale commercial operation. This would help neutralize some of the criticism being leveled against GSPC for creating hype around the KG operations by prematurely announcing 20 tcf of gas having been found. Nobody knows how of much of the 2 tcf is actually recoverable. Meanwhile, GSPC is search of a foreign partner who can help make maximum utilization of the KG gas.

Comments

Congress 'promises' cancellation of Adani power project: Jharkhand elections

Counterview Desk
Pointing out that people's issues take a backseat in Jharkhand's 2019 assembly elections, the state's civil rights organization, the Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha, a coalition of activists and people’s organisations, has said that political parties have largely ignored in their electoral manifestos the need to implement the fifth schedule of the Constitution in a predominantly tribal district.

Gujarat refusal to observe Maulana Azad's birthday as Education Day 'discriminatory'

By Our Representative
The Gujarat government decision not to celebrate the National Education Day on !monday has gone controversial. Civil society organizations have particularly wondered whether the state government is shying away from the occasion, especially against the backdrop of "deteriorating" level of education in Gujarat.

Hindutva founders 'borrowed' Nazi, fascist idea of one flag, one leader, one ideology

By Shamsul Islam*
With the unleashing of the reign of terror by the RSS/BJP rulers against working-class, peasant organizations, women organizations, student movements, intellectuals, writers, poets and progressive social/political activists, India also witnessed a series of resistance programmes organized by the pro-people cultural organizations in different parts of the country. My address in some of these programmes is reproduced here...
*** Before sharing my views on the tasks of artists-writers-intellectuals in the times of fascism, let me briefly define fascism and how it is different from totalitarianism. Totalitarianism is political concept, a dictatorship of an individual, family or group which prohibits opposition in any form, and exercises an extremely high degree of control over public and private life. It is also described as authoritarianism.
Whereas fascism, while retaining all these repressive characteristics, also believes in god-ordained superiority of race, cultur…

Ex-World Bank chief economist doubts spurt in India's ease of doing business rank

By Rajiv Shah
This is in continuation of my previous blog where I had quoted from a commentary which top economist Prof Kaushik Basu had written in the New York Times (NYT) a little less than a month ago, on November 6, to be exact. He recalled this article through a tweet on November 29, soon after it was made known that India's growth rate had slumped (officially!) to 4.5%.

With RSS around, does India need foreign enemy to undo its democratic-secular fabric?

By Shamsul Islam*
Many well-meaning liberal and secular political analysts are highly perturbed by sectarian policy decisions of RSS/BJP rulers led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, especially after starting his second inning. They are vocal in red-flagging lynching incidents, policies of the Modi government on Kashmir, the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the demand for 'Bharat Ratna' to Savarkar who submitted 6-7 mercy petitions to the British masters (getting remission of 40 years out of 50 years' sentence), and the murder of constitutional norms in Goa, Karnataka and now in Maharashtra.

Girl child education: 20 major states 'score' better than Gujarat, says GoI report

By Rajiv Shah
A Government of India report, released last month, has suggested that “model” Gujarat has failed to make any progress vis-à-vis other states in ensuring that girls continue to remain enrolled after they leave primary schools. The report finds that, in the age group 14-17, Gujarat’s 71% girls are enrolled at the secondary and higher secondary level, which is worse than 20 out of 22 major states for which data have been made available.

Rushdie, Pamuk, 260 writers tell Modi: Aatish episode casts chill on public discourse

Counterview Desk
As many as 260 writers, journalists, artists, academics and activists across the world, including Salman Rushdie, British Indian novelist, Orhan Pamuk, Turkish novelist and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in literature, and Margaret Atwood, Canadian poet and novelist, have called upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi to review the decision to strip British Indian writer Aatish Taseer of his overseas Indian citizenship.

Worrying signs in BJP: Modi, Shah begin 'cold-shouldering' Gujarat CM, party chief

By RK Misra*
The political developments in neighbouring Maharashtra where a Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government assumed office has had a trickle down effect in Gujarat with both the ruling BJP and the Congress opposition going into revamp mode.

Post-Balakot, danger that events might spiral out of control is 'greater, not less'

By Tapan Bose*
The fear of war in South Asia is increasing. Tensions are escalating between India and Pakistan after the Indian defence minister's announcement in August this year that India may revoke its current commitment to only use nuclear weapons in retaliation for a nuclear attack, known as ‘no first use’. According to some experts who are watching the situation the risk of a conflict between the two countries has never been greater since they both tested nuclear weapons in 1998.

'Favouring' tribals and ignoring Adivasis? Behind coercion of India's aborigines

By Mohan Guruswamy*
Tribal people account for 8.2% of India’s population. They are spread over all of India’s States and Union Territories. Even so they can be broadly classified into three groupings. The first grouping consists of populations who predate the Indo-Aryan migrations. These are termed by many anthropologists as the Austro-Asiatic-speaking Australoid people.

Counterview

Search This Blog