The Tribunal directed the Union Environment and Forest Ministry to review afresh the clearance for the long-delayed project and attach "specific conditions" for POSCO to follow.
The environment clearance granted to South Korean major POSCO's proposed mega steel project in Orissa was suspended by the National Green Tribunal today in another blow to the country's single largest foreign direct investment venture.
The Tribunal directed the Union Environment and Forest Ministry to review afresh the clearance for the long-delayed project and attach "specific conditions" which POSCO would have to follow in a "defined timeline".
"The environment clearance granted on January 31, 2011 to the project shall remain suspended till such review and appraisal is done by the ministry," a bench of tribunal comprising Justice C V Ramulu and Devendra Kumar Agarwal held.
The tribunal decision ironically came just days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Seoul that the project will be implemented and there was progress on it.
Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan did not think that the Tribunal decision is a setback to the project in the wake of the assurance by the Prime Minister
"I don't think two things are connected," she said.
Natarajan said her predecessor Jairam Ramesh, who granted the clearance to POSCO, had followed "very strict and very very transparent procedure and systems which have been put in place".
The tribunal pointed out that memorandum of understanding between the Orissa government and POSCO states that the project is for production of 12 million tonnes of steel per annum (MTPA) but the environment impact assessment (EIA) report has been prepared only for 4 MTPA steel production in the first phase.
It said the MoEF should take "policy decision" that in projects of such magnitude the EIA should be done for the complete project. "The EIA should assess it for the full capacity right from the beginning."
The bench said appointment of Meena Gupta as chairman of the committee to review the environmental clearance showed "departmental bias" as she had only "supported" the environment clearance granted to POSCO earlier during her tenure as the Secretary, the MoEF.
"The entire process was vitiated in the eyes of law," the bench said in this regard.
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