NEW DELHI: The Congress on Monday demanded an immediate suspension of all clearances and conduct of a thorough impartial review of the proposed “Mega Infra Project” in Great Nicobar, claiming that it poses a grave threat to the island’s tribal communities and had violated the letter and spirit of the Forest Rights Act.
In a statement, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, “The Union Government’s proposed Rs.
72,000 crore “Mega Infra Project” in Great Nicobar Island is a grave threat to Great Nicobar Island’s tribal communities and natural ecosystem. “
He highlighted several issues in the project, initiated in March 2021 at the instance of the NITI Aayog and said that the environment ministry has given ‘in principle’ clearance for diverting 13,075 hectares of forest land, which is about 15% of the island’s land mass and constitutes one of the country’s largest forest diversions in a nationally and globally unique rainforest ecosystem.
The Congress leader also said that the alternative for the loss of this forest has been arranged in the Haryana state which is thousands miles away and in a vastly different ecological zone.
“The coastline where the port and the project is proposed to come up is an earthquake prone zone, and saw a permanent subsidence of about 15 feet during the tsunami of December 2004. Locating such a massive project here puts investment, infrastructure, people, and the ecology in harm’s way. The project poses a direct threat to the wellbeing and survival of the Shompen, an indigenous community classified as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG),” the statement reads.
“39 experts from across the world have warned the Administration that the project poses the threat of genocide to the Shompen The Administration has compromised on due process in its rush to get approval –
The Administration did not adequately consult the Tribal Council of the Islands, as is legally required. The Tribal Council of Great Nicobar Island has in fact expressed objections to the Project, claiming that the authorities had earlier “rushed them” into signing a “No Objection” letter based on misleading information – and that the No Objection letter has since been revoked,” the statement added.
The administration has “ignored” the island’s Shompen Policy, notified by the Union tribal affairs ministry, which requires authorities to prioritise the tribe’s welfare when considering “large scale development proposals”, the Congress leader said.
He also claimed that the administration appears to have skipped the legally mandated consultation with the Scheduled Tribes Commission, required by Article 338 (9) of the Constitution.
“The ‘social impact assessment’ conducted as part of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (RFCTLARR) ignored the existence of the Shompen and the Nicobarese,” Ramesh said.
“Parts of the project site come under CRZ 1A (areas with turtle nesting sites, mangroves, coral reefs), which has been noted in an NGT (National Green Tribunal) order in response to petitions challenging the clearances. Allowing port construction here is clearly violative of the said provisions,” he claimed in the statement.
