According to sources all these clearances will come with riders. POSCO would hopefully be able to set up its plant for producing 4 tonne of steel per day in the initial phase in Jagatsinghpur in Orissa and later raise its capacity to 12 tonne per day.

The Union minister of state for environment and forests, Jairam Ramesh that the recent changes in the CRZ are examples of the law becoming realistic to accommodate environmental concerns and development. He said more and more power plants need to be located at sea coasts as these plants require water. “Some laws need to undergo changes,” he said.

At a recent interaction with the industry hosted by FICCI on January 24, the minister agreed to set up an environmental compliance facilitation centre on public-private partnership mode. He favoured public hearing in the interest of transparency. He said that the next open house discussion on environmental concerns and SMEs will be held in Chennai.

Regarding compensatory afforestation undertaken by the industry, he said that it should be done on degraded forest land rather than on revenue land. Here in the degraded forest lands, the ownership of the land and produces will remain with the government’s forest department and not with the industry, while in revenue lands, the industry substitute genuine afforestation by plantation which ultimately benefits them. Under Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) bilateral offset mechanism should be adopted he said.

Clearances under FRA involves a number of issues like wild life, tribal people’s rights, ecological concern, compensatory afforestation. “While the environment ministry is responsible for environment and forest clearances, as a part of the good corporate social responsibility (CSR), the industry should address the issues of land and livelihood losses of the affected people,” he said.

The minister lauded the Haryana Model where farmers got adequate compensation for their land directly from the industry and issues of local employment was given due consideration.

Ramesh alleged that there was no incentives for good environment standards of the industry nor any disincentives for bad environment performances. He suggested that the upcoming Budget should incorporate these. There should also be market-based incentives for innovation, he said.

He said that he was not in favour of a blanket on plastic bags all over the country. Plastic Waste Management Rules are not only to manage the environmental hazards but also for catering to the right interests of the plastic industry. About six million tone of plastic wastes are generated every year, out of which only three million tone are recycled. He said there were 25 plants for treatment of plastic waste and eight new such plants would be set up on PPP mode.

The minister said that the municipal solid waste management and converting waste to energy pose a serious challenge. In Delhi three plants are likely to be set up, one of which would be by Jindals.