He came, he saw, but the end results were mixed.
Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik came to the Capital on Monday with three major items on his lobbying agenda against the Union Environment and Forests Ministry — the Posco steel plant, Vedanta mine and the Polavaram dam.
After meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh, Mr. Patnaik sounded confident about Posco, refused to say much on Vedanta, and seemed reassured about Polavaram.
He was largely silent on the fate of Vedanta Aluminium's $1.7 billion-proposal to mine bauxite in the Niyamgiri Hills against the wishes of the local tribal community.
“Deliberate violations”
A committee, headed by National Advisory Council member N.C. Saxena, condemned both the company and the Orissa government for alleged deliberate violations of forest and environmental laws.
Mr. Patnaik did not bring up the issue with Dr. Singh, and did not get far in his discussions with Mr. Ramesh either. Orissa's Forest Secretary will meet Mr. Ramesh on Tuesday to present the State government's rebuttal of the Saxena report.
