From: Initiative India <initiativeindia@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Jun 19, 2010 at 4:13 PM
Subject: [initiative-india] Environmental and Legal Violations by Lavasa Lake City Corp.
To:
Note on violation of Environmental and Legal Violations by Lavasa Corporation Ltd.
LAVASA Corporation Ltd, Pune (Formerly Lake City Incorporation) [hereinafter referred as the "company"], developing a Hill Station Project at Mose Valley, has applied to the Environment Department, Govt of Maharashtra [hereinafter referred as DoEn] for their Environmental Clearance on 09-01-2004 and has received the same in a record time of around two months from the said department on 18-03-2004 vide letter no. Env/Cle/765/CR.105/TC.1 The clearance letter was issued by Director, Environment Department. There are following irregularities/violations involved in with respect of this project:
1. At the time of application and receipt of Environmental Clearance from the Environment Department to the said company, EIA Notification 1994 was in existence and it was mandatory for the company to seek Environmental Clearance from the Central Government and as such State Government was not competent to issue such clearance.
2. In the said clearance letter DoEn has not mentioned that the clearance is issued under EIA Notification 1994. It can also be construed from this letter that DoEn has not issued the Specific EC prescribed under EIA Notification 1994 but has issued a general clearance letter identical to a routine NOC issued by DoEn. Had the State Govt issued this EC under EIA Notification 1994, it would have followed sequential procedure of appraisal, i.e. scrutiny by expert committee and evaluation of EIA Report submitted by the Project Proponent. No such procedure seems to be followed for the grant of EC.
3. Importantly, as the company has applied for EC under hill station township category, it was mandatory for it to seek Environmental Clearance under EIA Notification 1994 [Category 18 of the Schedule-I appended to the said notification]. For this category, the said notification provides specification as follows: 18. All tourism projects between 200m -500 metres of High Water Line and at locations with an elevation of more than 1000 meters with investment of more than Rs. 5 crores.
4. While seeking for the EC, company has proposed a development of 2000 hectares and the capital investment was far more than INR 5 Crores as limited by the notification. The company has misleaded State Government by interpreting that since it was setting up the hill station at the elevation of less than 1000 meters, it would require the EC from the State Government and not from the Central Government. In fact, although the altitude was less than 1000 meters and the company was satisfying this specific criteria, the second important criteria of capital investment was against the claim made by company. As the capital investment was much exceeding the upper limit of 5 crore rupees, it was mandatory for the company to seek Environmental Clearance from Central Government, explicitly under EIA Notification 1994.
5. In view of the above, the so called EC issued by the Environment Department, Govt of Maharashtra stands illegal and against the provisions of the law as State Government was neither competent to issue such clearance nor it was delegated any such powers by Central Government. However, Without any prejudice to the legal validity of the said clearance letter,
5.1. It is noted that the said EC is issued for development of 2000 ha township hill station and as such the company is now developing more than 25,000 ha of the area which is clear violation of the conditions imposed by the said EC letter.
5.2. It is noted vide para 11 of the said letter that this EC granted to company was having a validity period of two years only and as such it would lapse after the said period. It is not clear from the available records whether the said project has obtained Consent to Operate from Maharashtra Pollution Control Board or not. Only the issuance of Consent to Operate by MPCB would have certified whether the project has got operational or not within the specified period of two years.
5.3. It is noted that vide para 3 of the said letter, the Environment Department has directed the project proponent to harvest the entire water required for project by putting bunds and has prohibited the project proponent from sharing the water of competing users in the valley. This has been violated by the PP in nexus with the Water Resources Department headed by Shri Ajit Pawar.
It is noted that vide para 4 of the said letter, the Environment Department has directed the PP to observe a zero discharge stipulation as far as disposal of treated sewage is concerned. The current status of this need to be checked.
It is noted that vide para 5 of the said letter, DoEn has directed the company to upgrade the external road namely Mumbai-Lonavla-Pune-Chandani Chowk-Dasve, Mumbai–Loanvla–Tamhini-Lake town–Mugaon, Kolad – Lonavla – Lake Town – Mugaon, Pune-Chandani chowk–Lake Town–Dasve in case the traffic exceeds more than 6000 vehicles ! Compliance of this needs to be checked!
According to para 8 of the said letter, it was mandatory for the company to make arrangements for treatment and disposal of Bio-Medical Waste (BMW) and simultaneously, it was mandatory for the company to seek BMW Authorisation from MPCB under the Bio-Medical Waste (Management & Handling) Rules 1998.
No forest land was permitted to be acquired by PP as far as this EC letter is concerned.
6. On 7th July 2004, MoEF amended the EIA Notification 1994 and introduced entry 31 to the Schedule-I. Through this amendment, the notification imposed that "any construction project falling under entry 31 of Schedule-I including new townships, industrial townships, settlement colonies, commercial complexes, hotel complexes, hospitals and office complexes for 1,000 (one thousand) persons or more or discharging sewage of 50,000 (fifty thousand) litres per day or more or with an investment of Rs. 50,00,00,000/- (Rupees fifty crores) or more shall require to seek Environmental Clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests, GOI under the said notification". In this case, it was mandatory for the company to undergo Public Hearing as per the provisions of this notification and then obtain Environmental Clearance from Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), New Delhi. However, neither any public hearing was conducted nor the company has obtained any such clearance which amounts to a clear violation of the EIA Notification 1994. [Ref: S.O. 801 (E) dated 7th July 2004]
7. On 14th September 2006, the new EIA Notification 2006 was introduced which superseded the old EIA Notification 1994. This notification abolished all previous criteria and specified that any Building and Construction Project [Category 8 a of Schedule appended to EIA Notification 2006] or a Township Project [Category 8 b of Schedule appended to EIA Notification 2006] shall require Environmental Clearance from the State Level Environmental Impact Assessment Authority in case it exceeds the Built-Up area of 20,000 square meters (equivalent to 2,00,000 square feet). Further, the LAVASA project being a township of more than 50 hectors, it was mandatory for the company to get EC for all that construction activity initiated after 7th July 2004.
8. The EIA Notification 2006 is self explanatory and specifies that all Township projects [entry 8 B] shall be appraised in Category B1 of the appraisal process. Therefore, it was mandatory for the company to undertake public hearing and carry out EIA of all such construction activities initiated after 14th September 2006. The construction activities are going with a full speed at site and the company has not obtained any such Environmental Clearance till the date.
9. In case the company has obtained the Consent to Establish from Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, it was mandatory to obtain Consent to Operate also. It needs to be checked whether this has been complied with or not.
10. It was mandatory (after the 2004 amendment to the EIA Notification 1994) for the company to seek a fresh Consent to Establish from Maharashtra Pollution Control Board [MPCB] under the Building & Construction or Township category. This consent is mandatory under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1974, Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1981 and Hazardous Waste (Management & Handling) Rules 1989. The company has not obtained any such Consent so far.
11. Surprisingly, not a single notice has been issued to the company by Maharashtra Pollution Control Board as yet whereas all other construction/township projects have been issued a stringent notice by the MPCB.
12. In short, as far as the Environmental Legislation is concerned, the company is a defaulter under Environment (Protection) Act 1986, Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1974, Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1981, Hazardous Waste (Management & Handling) Rules 1989 and Bio-Medical Waste (Management & Handling) Rules 1998.
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Palash Biswas
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