Twenty-one iron and steel plants, having capacity of 0.5 million tonnes a year and above, are up for an independent “green” rating. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a New Delhi-based NGO, has completed a survey of the country's top steel-sector players for the environmental ratings.

The results of the survey, conducted over around one year and nine months, and the rating details will be announced next month. The centre would also release a 200-page book on the environment status of the domestic steel sector on May 17.

India's environmental and tribal activists have scored another victory over companies looking to start mining and related projects in the mineral-rich and densely forested regions of the country.

Late Friday, a green tribunal has struck down an environmental clearance granted to Jindal Steel & Power Ltd. to mine coal at Raigarh in the central state of Chhattisgarh, saying the tribal people living in the area weren't given a fair hearing before the government gave its go-ahead to the project.

Public hearing conducted by the concerned company prior to applying for environmental clearance is not a mere formality but a substantive requirement of law, held the National Green Tribunal.

Setting aside the green clearance accorded to a coal mining project of Jindal Steel and Power in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh, the Tribunal observed that the company had made a mockery of the public hearing. An examination of the video recording done by the pollution control board showed a restive audience breaking chairs and shouting slogans which was broken up by police force.

New Delhi: Jindal Steel and Power Limited got a jolt on Friday with the National Green Tribunal (NGT) cancelling the environmental clearance to the 4 million tonne per annum Gare IV/6 coal mining project in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh.
The NGT order did not even spare the Union environment ministry (MoEF) for its functioning in the case. The tribunal noted that the mandatory public hearing held to gain acceptance of the project from the affected people was a “farce”. “It was amockery of the public hearing and the procedure required to be followed,” it said.

In a significant decision, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Friday set aside the Environmental Clearance (EC) granted to the 4 MTPA Coal Mining Project of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd and 4 MTPA Coal Washery at Gare in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh on grounds of faulty public hearing.

The company had been granted EC in May 2009. The NGT has directed that the public hearing may be conducted again but not under the Additional District Magistrate (ADM) who conducted it earlier. The verdict delivered by Justice C.V Ramulu and Prof R. Nagendran held that the entire “public hearing was a farce and makes a mockery of the public hearing process”.