The Waste to energy project, being promoted by Jindal in Okhla—owned by the Jindal family that is close to the ruling Congress party—will, when fully operational, burn 4,000 tonnes a day of waste derived fuel (RDF) made from municipal waste, to produce 20 megawatts of electricity.
Like many dirty industries rapidly coming up across the Indian landscape, Jindal’s Waste to energy project may have gone unremarked, except that it is located in the Okhla area of South Delhi, reckoned as among the most affluent of India’s 604 districts and populated by people acutely aware of their rights.
Environmentalists say the plant has violated zoning regulations, the Delhi Master Plan, rulings by the Supreme Court and rules laid down by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), a statutory body.
Even before Delhi State Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit laid the foundation stone for the plant in July 2010, residents of Okhla, which has a population of 1.5 million people, had filed public interest litigation in the Delhi High Court protesting several gross violations.
In published guidelines, titled "Management of Municipal SolidWaste," the CPCB has specifically cautioned local bodies "Not to adopt expensive technologies of power generation, fuel pelletisation, incineration etc. until they are proven under Indian conditions by the Government of India (GoI) or expert agencies nominated by the GoI."
After visiting the plant on Apr. 1, in response to mass rallies and protests by Okhla residents, MoEF minister Jairam Ramesh wrote to Dikshit pointing out two grave violations: the failure of the state government to hold adequate public consultations and Jindal Ecopolis’ failure to seek mandatory clearance from the CPCB.
Regularisation of illegality is a peculiar Indian characteristic. First you make the law and then break the law," Ramesh said, venting frustration while addressing a management conference in the capital last week.
In May, Ramesh’s ministry granted environmental clearances to such controversial projects as a 12-billion-dollar steel plant and port being built by the South Korean Pohang Steel Company in eastern Orissa state, and a nuclear power park in Jaitapur in western Maharashtra state under construction in a 15-billion-dollar deal with the French state-owned Areva.
Ramesh had earlier observed that Jindal’s WtE plant would be hard to stop or relocate because it was close to completion. But, under pressure from the Okhla community, he ordered a technical review by the CPCB and made the grant of an "operating license" conditional on the outcome.
"It became painfully clear that Jindal Ecopolis does not have technology clearance from CPCB, no valid environment impact assessment, and has never bothered to engage the community in public consultations as mandated by law," Trivedi told IPS.
"From the project costing it was clear that Jindal has no viable plans to remove toxic pollutants and plans to discharge effluents into the already polluted Yamuna River," he added. "The fact that the Asian Development Bank has dropped it from its Asia Pacific Carbon Fund speaks volumes for how green the project is."
Like many dirty industries rapidly coming up across the Indian landscape, Jindal’s Waste to energy project may have gone unremarked, except that it is located in the Okhla area of South Delhi, reckoned as among the most affluent of India’s 604 districts and populated by people acutely aware of their rights.
Environmentalists say the plant has violated zoning regulations, the Delhi Master Plan, rulings by the Supreme Court and rules laid down by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), a statutory body.
Even before Delhi State Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit laid the foundation stone for the plant in July 2010, residents of Okhla, which has a population of 1.5 million people, had filed public interest litigation in the Delhi High Court protesting several gross violations.
In published guidelines, titled "Management of Municipal SolidWaste," the CPCB has specifically cautioned local bodies "Not to adopt expensive technologies of power generation, fuel pelletisation, incineration etc. until they are proven under Indian conditions by the Government of India (GoI) or expert agencies nominated by the GoI."
After visiting the plant on Apr. 1, in response to mass rallies and protests by Okhla residents, MoEF minister Jairam Ramesh wrote to Dikshit pointing out two grave violations: the failure of the state government to hold adequate public consultations and Jindal Ecopolis’ failure to seek mandatory clearance from the CPCB.
Regularisation of illegality is a peculiar Indian characteristic. First you make the law and then break the law," Ramesh said, venting frustration while addressing a management conference in the capital last week.
In May, Ramesh’s ministry granted environmental clearances to such controversial projects as a 12-billion-dollar steel plant and port being built by the South Korean Pohang Steel Company in eastern Orissa state, and a nuclear power park in Jaitapur in western Maharashtra state under construction in a 15-billion-dollar deal with the French state-owned Areva.
Ramesh had earlier observed that Jindal’s WtE plant would be hard to stop or relocate because it was close to completion. But, under pressure from the Okhla community, he ordered a technical review by the CPCB and made the grant of an "operating license" conditional on the outcome.
"It became painfully clear that Jindal Ecopolis does not have technology clearance from CPCB, no valid environment impact assessment, and has never bothered to engage the community in public consultations as mandated by law," Trivedi told IPS.
"From the project costing it was clear that Jindal has no viable plans to remove toxic pollutants and plans to discharge effluents into the already polluted Yamuna River," he added. "The fact that the Asian Development Bank has dropped it from its Asia Pacific Carbon Fund speaks volumes for how green the project is."
