Karnataka - Mangalore

Will public hearing on MSEZ be held?

MANGALORE: The termination by Deputy Commissioner M. Maheshwar Rao of Wednesday’s public hearing on the environmental impact of the Mangalore Special Economic Zone has thrown up much speculation. There are some legal directives in the Environmental Impact Assessment Notification 2006, which foresee a situation such as this and provide for it.

The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board is responsible for conducting the public hearing and is supposed to forward the total proceedings, including the response from MSEZ Ltd., to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) within 45 days.

In case it is unable to do so, the MoEF will engage another public agency similar to the KSPCB to complete the process within a further period of 45 days.

If the KSPCB conveys to the MoEF that it is unable to conduct the public hearing as per the rules because the local situation does not allow for a public hearing, then the MoEF may decide that the public consultation need not include the public hearing. That means that people who want to voice their dissent on the project in an open forum like Wednesday’s will have to be content with tendering a written objection.

If this were to happen, it is expected to be a major setback for the allied activists, citizens’ forums, political outfits and non-governmental organisations, which are agitating against the proposed project.

Speaking to presspersons after the termination of the proceedings, Mr. Rao said, “This meeting is closed until further notice.”

His statement has left people speculating about what course this case will take. Citing that the detailed draft of the EIA report has not been made available in Kannada, sections of agitators are demanding that the report be made available in the local language first. Their explanation is that local people have so far not been able to read or understand the report because it has been printed in English.

Therefore, locals are not in a position to either support or oppose the project.

They are also demanding that the public hearing be postponed until the Kannada reports are circulated and read by the masses.

There is a provision in the EIA notification 2006 for this as well. The notification directs MSEZ Ltd. to furnish the EIA reports “in English and the local language”.

The Deputy Commissioner has not yet stated the official reasons for the termination of the meeting.

If he says the meeting has been “cancelled” and cites crowd trouble as the reason, there is a chance that the MoEF will decide against the public hearing as part of the mandatory public consultation forcing people to register their dissent only in writing.

On the other hand, if the Deputy Commissioner says that the meeting has been “postponed”, then there is still hope for another public hearing in the future.

However, whether such a public hearing will be conducted after circulating the detailed EIA drafts in Kannada or not is not yet sure.

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