The Central Bureau of Investigation has charged Aditya Birla Group company Hindalco Industries Ltd. with alleged corruption related to environmental clearances for coal mining in Odisha from 2011 to 2013.
The FIR, accessed by NDTV, follows a nearly eight-year-long preliminary inquiry that began in 2016. The inquiry investigated claims that the Aditya Birla Management Corp. allegedly paid substantial bribes during the period to obtain the necessary environmental clearances for coal mining in Talabira.
The agency has also implicated T. Chandini, the then director of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, accusing her of favouring Hindalco as the member secretary of the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC). Chandini is alleged to have permitted mining in the Talabira-I area of Odisha’s Jharsuguda, a critically polluted zone, in violation of regulatory guidelines.
The inquiry revealed that the government in 2006 mandated companies obtain environmental clearances for all new projects, expansions of existing operations, and changes in product mixes within existing manufacturing units.
Projects requiring environmental clearance were to be reviewed by the EAC, which includes experts from various fields. The regulatory authority would then grant clearance based on the EAC's recommendations.
Hindalco received its initial environmental clearance in 2001 for mining 0.4 million tonnes per annum of coal from the Talabira-I mine. A subsequent clearance in January 2009 allowed the company to expand its operations, increasing the mining capacity from 0.4 MTPA to 1.5 MTPA.
Nearly a month after the second clearance, the company sought to double its capacity to 3 MTPA, which was to be considered by the EAC, it said. It emerged that the company had allegedly violated clearances given in 2001 and 2009 by producing more coal than permitted by the ministry, the FIR said.
Hindalco allegedly mined 3.04 MTPA of excess coal from 2004–05 to 2007–08 and 2008–09, it said. "This fact became known during the process of consideration by the EAC, of which T. Chandini, director, was the member secretary," the FIR alleged.
The Odisha State Pollution Control Board and the Central Pollution Control Board confirmed during the inquiry that the Talabira mine was in the critically polluted area of Jharsuguda, the CBI alleged.
According to ministry rules, in-pipeline projects in critically polluted areas or those applying after Jan. 13, 2010, were to be returned to the project proponent by member secretaries with the approval of the advisor.
The inquiry showed that Chandini, despite being fully aware that the company was mining excess coal in violation of previous environmental clearances, did not return the project, as stipulated in the ministry circular.
"Rather, she acted to the contrary in as much as the proposal of HIL (Hindalco) was continued to be processed, which amounted to misuse of her official position to favour HIL," the CBI FIR has alleged.
Chandini, by misusing her official position, communicated to Hindalco that their proposal for grant environmental clearance would be considered in the next meeting of the EAC to be held on Feb. 25 and 25, 2010, the agency alleged.
She allegedly ensured that the clearance was granted in haste, considering the fact that Hindalco was already in violation of earlier clearances granted by the ministry, as it was already mining excess coal from the Talabira-I coal mine, it said.
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