The irregular felling and shifting of around 6,050 of Sisu, Akasia, Nimba and Jamun trees of about 4ft above at the premises of the Talcher Fertilizers Limited (TFL) has triggered a hue and cry among the local people. The TFL plant is now under renovation process.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in last September unveiled a plaque to mark the commencement of revival activity at the Talcher fertiliser project.
The plant is now revived by the Talcher Fertilizers Limited (TFL), a joint venture between the GAIL (India) Limited, the Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Limited (RCF) and the Coal India Limited (CIL). The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved an equity investment of Rs 1,033.54 crore by the Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Limited (RCF) for setting up a coal gasification based fertilizer project.
The capital expenditure of the project has been pegged at Rs 11,611.48 crore with a 15 per cent cost escalation provision. The concerned authority has started the renovation of the plant after the Prime Minister’s visit.
After shifting the old plant mechenary, the authority has now engaged contractors to clean the land. However, the contractor cleaned the plant premises by cutting 6,050 trees, without engaging or requesting the supervision of the Odisha Forest Development Corporation (OFDC) for cutting the log into marketable size as per provision, resulting in loss of about Rs 6 crore.
Now, the valuable logs cannot be sold in proper price as those are not in proper market-worthy sizes. The contractor also shifted the logs from cutting place to another dumping yard without valid permission. In a letter to the MD, OFDC, Eco Circle president SB Mishra alleged that the cutting and shifting of valuable trees of worth about Rs 6 crore at the TFL premises is highly illegal.
While apprehending rampant corruption in shifting and illegal sale of huge numbers of valuable timber from the premises, Mishra demanded immediate action against the all those involved.