Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa Wednesday ordered authorities to put on hold the multi-crore Coal Bed Methane project by Great Eastern Energy Corporation Ltd in Delta districts in the wake of farmers' apprehensions that it would affect agricultural operations.
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Jayalalithaa said she had constituted an expert committee comprising academics and government officials to file a report on the project in three months and also ordered officials not to allow any work by the Corporation until government takes a decision based on the committee's report.
The committee would have representatives from Anna University, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, besides officials from Public Works Department, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation.
"Though the Union Ministry for Environment and Forests have given its clearance, it is the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board that has to give clearance for drilling deep wells. TNPCB has not given its clearance to the applications by GEECL so far," she said.
Referring to GEECL's report, which said the CBM bed in Thanjavur and Thiruvarur was similar to Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana states in U.S.A, she noted, "One of the reports on the project said some of the chemicals used to extract coal bed methane are toxic, soluble in water and have radiation.
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