by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
Modi Govt. Clears Forest land for Anil Ambani
1169 acres for Cement plant in Yawatmal
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, Feb 4
The Ministry of Environment and Forest has granted prior approval for diversion of 467.45 ha. of Forest Land for non-forestry purpose to M/s Reliance Cementation Private Limited, a company owned by Anil Ambani.
It is stated that the 1169 acres of land was given to Ambanis diverting Forest land in Pimaradwadi, Horapur and Govindpur villages of Yavatmal District of Maharashtra.
The Anil Ambani group is already in controversies due to Rafale deal and other issues. The company has also filed for insolvency recently. Now it emerges that the Maharashtra government and the Centre granted forest land to him for setting up a cement factory.
The Maharashtra government told the Centre that proposed area does not fall under any National Park, Wildlife Sanctuary, Biosphere Reserve, Tiger Reserve, Elephant Corridor etc. and no protected area was located within 10 kilometres distance from the forest land proposed for diversion in favour of M/s Reliance Cementation Private Limited, in Pimaradwadi, Horapur and Govindpur villages of Yavatmal District of Maharashtra.
The state government sent the proposal to the Centre for its prior approval which agreed and granted the same.
The Forest land is not acquired but the forest land is given to the User Agency by the State Government for non-forestry purpose and Compensatory Levis such as Compensatory Afforestation cost, Net Present Value and other charges are deposited by the User Agency in Compensatory Afforestation Fund.
In this case M/s Reliance Cementation Private Limited has deposited Rs. 52,06,22,016.63/- ( Fifty Two Crore Six Lakh Twenty Two Thousand Sixteen and sixty three paisa) amount as compensatory levies in Compensatory Afforestation Fund of Maharashtra.
The Minister of state for Environment & Forest Mahesh Sharma confirmed the information in Rajya Sabha today.
Ends
