SANTOSHI RAJAN Vs. NTPC LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PETITIONER No. 1 is President of Janpad Panchayat, Katghora, District Korba. Petitioner No. 2 claims to be a Social Worker and resident of Mohalain Bhata, Gatghora, District Korba. They have filed this Writ Petition, styled as Public interest Litigation (PIL), for quashing of Notice Inviting Tender No. KS/CS/2010-2011/184 dated 12.01.2011 issued by respondent No. 1/National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (for short NTPC/NTPC Limited/NTPC Korba).

(2.) NTPC Korba is a Government of India Enterprise running Korba Super Thermal Power Station. NTPC invited tenders on 12.01.2011 for awarding the work of "Dry Ash Filling in Fill-II Area from Existing Lagoons Near Dhanras Ash Dyke". The Estimated Cost of tender was Rs. 3254.39 Lakh and Earnest Money Deposit was Rs. 72,32,000/-. Various Companies offered their bids. According to the return filed by NTPC one M/s Nagarjuna Construction Company Limited, Hyderabad has been found to be L-1, where as M/s Subhash infraengineers Private Limited, Gurgaon has been found as L-2. When finalization of the tender was under process, the above 2 petitioners filed this writ petition mainly on the ground that the entire area for which the tender was floated is covered with forest and several valuable trees, though the schedule of quantity says about forest clearance, but in the said column, there is no mention about the number of trees standing on the land and clear-cut details have not been mentioned in the schedule, earlier, in 2006 when the work for filling of ash dyke was going on, an accident took place as a result of which a local resident namely Jagdish Prasad@ Bokuram died for which an offence was registered bearing Crime No. 1038/2007 which is still pending consideration and thereafter the work was stopped by order of the State Government; a river is situated at a distance of 10-150 meters from the place where the ash dyke work is required to be done and in case of filling up of water it may cause untoward incident; the NTPC has not obtained requisite No-Objection Certificates as well as clearance from the respective State Department for execution of the said work; therefore, the above tender notice should be quashed.

(3.) STATE /respondents 4 and 5 have also filed return. They have supported the contentions of NTPC and have pleaded that NTPC intend to award contract of ash filling in low lying areas near their ash dyke located in village Dhanras. The dry ash is to be taken out from their ash dyke for the purpose of meeting the target of ash utilization fixed by the Ministry of Power, Government of India, which is in furtherance of the relevant guidelines on the use of fly ash/bottom ash/pond ash issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India, in the year 1999 and in the year 2009 under the Environment (Protection) Act. 1986 and which is also permitted under the consents given by Chhattisgarh Environment Conservation Board in the Air/Water Acts from time to time. They have pleaded in clear words in Para-4 of the return that no further clearance or permission is needed from the Government authorities for executing this work. They have further contended that Fill-II area has been acquired/allotted/diverted by the State and Central Government for the specific purpose of disposal of ash generated from Korba Super Thermal Power Station of NTPC and this land, which is under the ownership of the NTPC, is bereft of any trees and already filled with ash. They have very specifically pleaded that Fill-II area is at a distance of 400 meters from Hasdeo river. A map showing all this has been filed as Annexure- R/4-2.