Land acquisition Madhya Pradesh for a power plant to be set up by Moser Baer challenged before the High Court

Land acquisition by State of Madhya Pradesh for a power plant to be set up by Moser Baer has been challenged before the High Court of Madhya Pradesh. The project has also been challenged for non-compliance with environment norms. The division bench of Chief Justice SR Alam and Justice Alok Aradhe on Tuesday issued notices to Union of India through Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Environment and Forest and State of Madhya Pradesh through Chief Secretary; Madhya Pradesh Pollution and Control Board and Moser Baer Power and Infrastructure Limited to file their replies within six weeks.

Petitioner Buddhsen Rathore has challenged the land acquisition for non-compliance with the provisions of Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act as the area comes within the 5th schedule of the Constitution of India. The petitioner has further contended that the provision of rehabilitation policy of Madhya Pradesh has also not been observed in this case. Annuppur district where the power plant is to be set up, has been declared as water scarcity district and prohibitory orders in this regard are already in force. Despite this, the petitioner alleged that the water resource has been allocated to Moser Baer ignoring the necessity of irrigation and drinking water in the district. The clearance for environment protection agency has also been taken without any public hearing, contended petitioner.

Moser Baer proposes to establish power plant in Jaithari block of Annuppur District in respect to which a Memorandum of Understanding between the State Government and Moser Baer has been signed. About 1380 acres of land has been acquired by the government for the project. US based Private Equity Fund, Blackstone has made an investment of about Rs 1,350 crore in Moser Baer for implementation of its various projects.