Retired judges call for probe into public hearing on Ennore power plant expansion

The public hearing on the Ennore Thermal Power Station (ETPS) expansion project was conducted at Ernavur on December 20, 2024. File
| Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam

A group of retired judges have raised concerns about various violations in the “unlawful” conduct of a public hearing on the expansion of the Ennore Thermal Power Station (ETPS), proposed at Ernavur in north Chennai.

The retired judges — S. Muralidhar (Chief Justice of Odisha High Court), K. Kannan (Punjab and Haryana High Court), and D. Hariparanthaman (Madras High Court) — citing the public hearing that was held on December 20 last year sent a representation to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), urging that an investigation be carried out into its conduct.

They alleged in the representation that the public hearing was “hijacked” by an MLA of the ruling party and other party functionaries, thereby vitiating the atmosphere and disallowing the residents of the area to voice their views. The memorandum was forwarded to various officials of the Union Ministry, including Sharad Singh Negi, chairperson of Expert Appraisal Committee (Thermal) constituted under it, as well as the Tamil Nadu government.

The memorandum, backed by news reports, highlighted allegations of poor planning and the hijack of the statutory public consultation by the ruling DMK functionaries associated with the local MLA. It alleged irregularities in the poor selection of the venue, which had inadequate space. With more than 1,000 residents participating and 300 security personnel deployed, the meeting space was congested. The absence of any queue management meant that several people were unable to enter the venue, the memorandum said.

As per a notification, the public hearing was conducted by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) and chaired by the Chennai District Collector. The memorandum alleged that the local MLA “disallowed” some persons, including Santhosh, a resident of Kasimedu, from speaking by ‘grabbing the mic’, with the Collector not intervening in any way. This went on to show that the constitutional authority was not in control of the proceedings, it further said. 

The residents and social activists who attended the public hearing complained that there was a clear violation of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification of 2006, as per which the proceedings, reflecting the views and concerns expressed by the people, shall not only be recorded by the representatives of the TNPCB but also be read out at the end. The proceedings were never formally concluded, with the video recording of the proceedings proving the allegation, said the representation. The District Collector, being the chairperson of the proceedings, failed to conduct it in a free and fair manner and walked out of the venue without formally concluding the hearing or allowing interested persons to complete their depositions. 

The representation also noted that an email previously sent to Sundar Ramanathan, Member Secretary, EAC Thermal of MoEFCC, and other senior officials dated December 16 last year raised fears and concerns that the public consultation for the ETPS expansion project may turn out to be a “staged event.” This proved to be correct, the memorandum said.