Stalin Urges Modi to Withdraw OM on Mining Projects

Chief Minister MK Stalin has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to immediately withdraw the recent Office Memorandum (OM), issued by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), which exempts the requirement of public consultation for mining projects involving atomic and strategic minerals notified in the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act.

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The CM has also pointed out that the OM also directs that all such projects be henceforth exclusively appraised at the central level, irrespective of the lease area. "The present OM, by dispensing with public consultations, has gone for an impermissible executive amendment of a statute and is unsustainable," he said.

Stalin warned that dispensing with such consultations would deprive the coastal communities of their right to raise concerns over livelihood, displacement and ecological damage due to mining and weaken the overall democratic process.