Chennai, Sept. 12 -- Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin today urgedPrime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw forthwith the Office Memorandum(OM) issued by the Environment Impact Assessment Division of the Ministryof Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), exempting therequirement of public consultation for all mining projects of atomic minerals.
In a Demi-Official letter to Mr Modi, copies of which were released to themedia here, he said the OM raises serious legal concerns and such OMs,which sought to dilute statutory safeguards, have been struck down bythe National Green Tribunal (NGT).
The present OM, by dispensing with public consultations, amounts to animpermissible executive amendment of law and is therefore unsustainable,...