HC treats plea on methane project closed

Chennai

When the petition seeking to cancel the permission given to the company came up for hearing before the First Bench comprising Chief Justice S K Kaul and Justice M M Sundaresh, the centre submitted an affidavit stating that the permission given to the firm was withdrawn in July last year.

Accepting it, the Bench treated the petition as closed. Taking cognisance of the intense struggle by the farmers, the Tamil Nadu Government headed by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had in October last year had announced no clearance will be given to coal bed methane exploration project in the delta districts.

The government also urged the Centre to drop further action on the exploration and allied activities in the entire Cauvery delta region.

The ban on methane extraction came into effect after the government passed a GO on October 8, 2015, which said the recommendations of the Expert Technical Committee headed by the TNPCB chairman to look into  the various aspects of the project proposed by M/s Great Eastern Energy Corporation Limited have been largely accepted and was acted upon.

The GEECL was granted permission to explore and produce coal bed methane in the Mannargudi Coal Bed Methane Block spanning 691 sqkm in Tiruvarur and Thanjavur districts.

The Centre entered into a production sharing agreement with the GEECL on July 29, 2010, after which the private entity petitioned the State government to accord sanction for a petroleum  exploration licence.

The previous DMK regime sanctioned the licence on January 1, 2011, for a period of four years and the State government entered into an MoU with the GEECL on January four, 2011, promising sanctions, licences and infrastructure to help in pursuing the project.

However, delta farmers and people saw the project as a major threat to their livelihood and food security. They felt that coal bed methane exploration would gravely affect agricultural activities and staged various  forms of agitations against the project.

The farmers also openly opposed the project at public hearings held in Thanjavur and Tiruvarur. Despite the public outcry and strong opposition, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests granted  environment clearance for the project on September 12, 2012.

After Jayalalithaa returned to power in 2011, she took cognisance of the protests by farmers, public and political parties in the delta areas and promised that her government would not allow any activity that would strike at the root of agricultural activities in the region.

On July 17, 2013, Jayalalithaa ordered setting up of an expert technical committee to study the GEECL  project upon whose recommendations the GO was issued, bringing the much needed relief to the farmers.