Gujarat Forum, apex body of clean technology NGOs, asks Centre to withdraw Adani Power's eco-certificate

By A Representative
The Gujarat Forum on Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which is an apex body of several environmental bodies and individuals, has asked the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Government of India, to withdraw the approval letter granted to the Adani Power for its CDM project – grid connected energy efficient power generation – installed in the coal fired power unit in the Mundra special economic zone (SEZ) in order to earn carbon credits from the international market. In a letter to Dr A Duraisamy, director and member-secretary, National CDM Authority, the Gujarat Forum has said that the registration to the Adani Power cannot continue after a high-level committee headed by top environmentalist Sunita Narain, appointed by the MoEF itself, found "serious environmental violations" by the Adani Power.
The letter comes three weeks after an international advocacy group asked the Government of India to withdraw the eco-certificate granted to the Adanis’ power project following top international traders, EDF, a major buyer of carbon credits from carbon offsetting projects around the world, declaring that it was “distancing” itself from the Adani project. Citing the EDF’s decision, the advocacy group Carbon Market Watch (CMW) asked New Delhi to “withdraw the CDM approval for the project”. It said, New Delhi should follow suit as EDF Trading has in a statement published French energy daily “Enerpresse” stated that it “is no longer associated contractually under the CDM, with this [Adani Mundra] supercritical coal power project in India.” The CMW also cited the Sunita Narain report to demand the withdrawal of CDM certification.
The letter, signed by two dozen organizations and individuals, says that the grid connected energy efficient power generation, was registered under the United Nations’ Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) “in violation with various national regulations, as highlighted in the inspection committee report of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) released in April 2013.” The CDM project is located at the villages Tunda and Siracha, Mundra taluka, Kutch district of Gujarat. In September 2012, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) constituted a committee for inspection of Adani Port and SEZ Ltd., Mundra, Gujarat. The thermal power plant is among the three distinct components of the project area. Among others, the committee was supposed to verify the following:
1. The development of power plant with respect to the approved components.
2. The compliance with the conditions of the Environment Clearance granted for the power plant.
3. The likely impacts on agriculture due to ingress of salinity resulting from creation of huge water body of sea water for Adani Power Plant at Mundra Taluka.
4. Issues related to handling of fly ash by Adani Power Limited and particularly with reference to the notification on utilization of fly ash.
The letter says, “In April 2013, the inspection committee issued a report presenting factual information and analysis on what has gone wrong, as well as detailed recommendations on the future plan for remedial action. The official CDM project design document states that the project’s contribution to sustainable development, amongst others, because the super-critical technology based power plant would help in the improvement of environmental conditions in and around the locality of the project site. The proposed project activity would reduce the requirement of coal combustion and thus avoid emissions of CO2 and other air pollutants (SPM, Sox) in the atmosphere due to higher efficiency of power generation.”
This despite the fact that on April 18, 2011, the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) “issued a directive to the thermal power project for controlling fugitive emissions.” In fact, “the GPCB officials observed fugitive emission due to movement of fly ash loaded dumpers and other heavy vehicles.”

Things became further clearer after the April 2013 inspection report submitted to the MoEF, when the Sunit Narain committee stated that “even though the company submits that it has adequate pollution control equipments in place, their operation is an aspect that cannot be verified/ commented upon by the committee because of missing monitoring reports.” In particular, the report noted, “It is clear that the company has been less than serious about reporting on compliance with the conditions set at the time of clearance. In many cases non-compliance with reporting conditions has been observed.”
Citing the report, the letter states, “The overall assessment of the inspection report is that there are instances of violations and non-compliance with environmental conditions, which need to be addressed. The report also highlights that it is equally important that urgent steps are taken to repair damage and to mitigate future harm and sets out the agenda for action. Despite these serious violations of India’s air pollution regulation and evidence that the sustainable development criteria as highlighted in the project design document are not met the project remains registered as a CDM project.”
Based on this, the Gujarat Forum said, “the MoEF's own report finds non-compliance with national legislation and evidence that the project is not meeting the criteria of sustainable development set up by National CDM Authority (which is the Indian designated national authority).” Hence, “the approval of the National CDM Authority (Indian DNA) for Adani Thermal Power Project to be operating as a CDM project, be withdrawn.” It has added, “We also strongly recommend that urgent steps are taken to repair the damage and to mitigate future harm as proposed in the inspection committee report’s action plan.”
Among those who have signed the Gujarat Forum letter include Falguni Joshi of the Gujarat Forum on CDM, Ahmedabad; Mahesh Pandya of the Paryavaran Mitra, Ahmedabad; Himanshu Banker of the Vikalp, Ahmedabad; Dr Subash Mohapatra of the Global Human Rights Communications, Bhubaneswar; Myron Mendes of Laya, Vishakapatnam; Ajita Tiwari of the Indian Network on Ethics and Climate Change; Soumya Dutta of the Climate and Energy Group, Beyond Copenhagen Collective (BCPH), India; Bikash Rath of the Regional Centre for Development Cooperation, Orissa; Gopal Krishna of ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA), New Delhi; Samir Mehta of the International Rivers; Dharmesh Shah of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA); Gautam Thaker of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Ahmedabad; MSH Sheikh of the Brackish Water Research Center, Olpad; Arvind Padhiyar of the Mahisagar Shakti Sangathan, Padra, and several individual campaigners.

Comments

India's chemical industry: The missing piece of Atmanirbhar Bharat

By N.S. Venkataraman* Rarely a day passes without the Prime Minister or a cabinet minister speaking about the importance of Atmanirbhar Bharat . The Start-up India scheme is a pillar in promoting this vision, and considerable enthusiasm has been reported in promoting start-up projects across the country. While these developments are positive, Atmanirbhar Bharat does not seem to have made significant progress within the Indian chemical industry . This is a matter of high concern that needs urgent and dispassionate analysis.

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

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.

Remembering a remarkable rebel: Personal recollections of Comrade Himmat Shah

By Rajiv Shah I first came in contact with Himmat Shah in the second half of the 1970s during one of my routine visits to Ahmedabad , my maternal hometown. I do not recall the exact year, but at that time I was working in Delhi with the CPI -owned People’s Publishing House (PPH) as its assistant editor, editing books and writing occasional articles for small periodicals. Himmatbhai — as I would call him — worked at the People’s Book House (PBH), the CPI’s bookshop on Relief Road in Ahmedabad.

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

As 2024 draws nearer, threatening signs appear of more destructive wars

By Bharat Dogra The four years from 2020 to 2023 have been very difficult and high risk years for humanity. In the first two years there was a pandemic and such severe disruption of social and economic life that countless people have not yet recovered from its many-sided adverse impacts. In the next two years there were outbreaks of two very high-risk wars which have worldwide implications including escalation into much wider conflicts. In addition there were highly threatening signs of increasing possibility of other very destructive wars. As the year 2023 appears to be headed for ending on a very grim note, there are apprehensions about what the next year 2024 may bring, and there are several kinds of fears. However to come back to the year 2020 first, the pandemic harmed and threatened a very large number of people. No less harmful was the fear epidemic, the epidemic of increasing mental stress and the cruel disruption of the life and livelihoods particularly among the weaker s...

Muslim women’s rights advocates demand criminalisation of polygamy: Petition launched

By A Representative An online petition seeking a legal ban on polygamy has been floated by Javed Anand, co-editor of Sabrang and National Convener of Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy (IMSD), inviting endorsements from citizens, organisations and activists. The petition, titled “Indian Muslims & Secular Progressive Citizens Demand a Legal Ban on Polygamy,” urges the Central and State governments, Parliament and political parties to abolish polygamy through statutory reform, backed by extensive data from the 2025 national study conducted by the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA).

Bangladesh alternative more vital for NE India than Kaladan project in Myanmar

By Mehjabin Bhanu* There has been a recent surge in the number of Chin refugees entering Mizoram from the adjacent nation as a result of airstrikes by the Myanmar Army on ethnic insurgents and intense fighting along the border between India and Myanmar. Uncertainty has surrounded India's Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport project, which uses Sittwe port in Myanmar, due to the recent outbreak of hostilities along the Mizoram-Myanmar border. Construction on the road portion of the Kaladan project, which runs from Paletwa in Myanmar to Zorinpui in Mizoram, was resumed thanks to the time of relative calm during the intermittent period. However, recent unrest has increased concerns about missing the revised commissioning goal dates. The project's goal is to link northeastern states with the rest of India via an alternate route, using the Sittwe port in Myanmar. In addition to this route, India can also connect the region with the rest of India through Assam by using the Chittagon...

Search This Blog