Water cess dues: NHRC seeks ATR from govt

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Cuttack: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has sought reports from the Chief Secretary and the Water Resources department secretary on a petition pertaining to water cess dues from 287 companies in state.
The rights body has asked the two officials to explain what steps have been taken to recover the dues from the defaulting companies within four weeks.
Human rights activist Akhand had filed a petition with the NHRC claiming that 287 private and public sector companies in the state had defaulted on payment of water cess to the tune of Rs 3,400 crore from 2010 to 2017. The amount will go up to around Rs 5,000 if interest is added to it, the petitioner told NHRC.
The petitioner had blamed a nexus between government officials and the companies for the state government’s failure to collect the water cess dues.
According to the petition, the outstanding water cess dues from Nalco (Angul) was Rs 655 crore while the figure was Rs 443 crore for Jaypur paper mill, Rs 255 crore for Ballarpur Industries, Rs 211 crore for South Eastern Railway Jharsuguda and Rs 147 crore for Nalco (Damonjodi).
Similarly, water cess dues from Brajarajnagar Orient Paper Mill have been calculated at Rs 129 crore while the amount was Rs 93 crore for Tata Steel (Joda), Rs 62 crore for Shayma DRI Private Ltd, Rs 50 crore for Bhusan Ltd, Rs 40 crore for Arti Steels, Rs 39 crore for Tata Refactories (Belpahar) and Rs 39 crore for Jindal Steel and Power.
The petitioner has sought immediate intervention of the NHRC in the issue.