Kendrapara: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) Thursday directed the Chief Secretary of Odisha to issue a notice to the project proponent for providing environmental compensation of Rs 1,10,50,000. The watch body also directed Chief Secretary to serve letter on the accused seeking explanation from the SP and the District Collector as to why action would not be taken against them.
The direction was made by Justice SP Wangdi, the Judicial Member, Dr Satyawan Singh Garbyal, and Saibal Dasgupta, expert members of NGT. The NGT also stated that so far no assessment of damage to the environment is done. It was stated that MoE&CC (Ministry of Environment and Climate change) is yet to come out with the guidelines.
“We find this stand to be rather curious as it was for this very reason that we had directed the DM and DMO (District Mining Officer) Kendrapara to take assistance of the state PCB and CPCB to make an assessment.”
The CS has been directed to file a report before the next date whether the environmental compensation of Rs 1,10,50,000 has been recovered from the project proponent and the further action taken by the Chief Secretary. The next date of hearing has been scheduled to 15th January 2020.
