Jairam Ramesh hits back at Centre over its rebuttal of his charges on Dhirauli coal mine project
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh reiterated the charges of “open irregularities” during the approval process for Adani Group’s Dhirauli Coal Mining Project on Wednesday, September 17, 2025, and responded by the Ministry of Coal to claim that the project fell under the fifth program of the Constitution.
Ramesh claimed that the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Climate Change has refuted the previous statements, that the mining land did not fall into the protected area under the fifth program of the Constitution.
There was no immediate response to the allegations of the Ministry of Environment or Adani Group.
In the refutation of Mr. Ramesh last week, the Ministry of Environment said, “The Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Climate Change, both stages and II approvals, allegations on violations of constitutional guards are actually wrong and misleading,” he said.
“I Had Raised The Issue of the Blatant Irregularities in the Approval Process For Modani’s Dhirauli Coal Mining Project on September 12th. Did not fall in the fifth schedule of the Constitution; Ramesh Said on X on Wednesday (17 September 2025).
“The first claim is wrong. On August 9, 2023, the Union Coal Minister was clearly and categorically answered that the Dhirauli Coal Mining Project in Lok Sabha fell to a region that was actually protected under the fifth program of the Constitution.” He said.
In the case of the second claim, Ramesh includes the Habitat rights and habitat rights of the 2006 Forest Rights Law, not only individual forest rights, but also especially vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs) (PVTGs) (PVTGs) (PVTGs).
The Dhirauli coal mine involves the deflection of about 3,500 acres of forest land in five villages, and at least three villages adjacent to these forests are likely to be dependent on them.
Ramesh argued that three types of tribal rights in these eight villages should also be solved.
“On March 31, 2022, in accordance with the 2006 Forest Rights Law, the full process was carried out for the identification and settlement of the rights, and the rights of the vulnerable tribal groups were protected, but Madhya Pradesh’s own information was not accepted in the whole region of Singrauli.
Last Friday, Mr. Ramesh claimed that Adani group began to cut trees in the government and forest land for the coal mine project in Dhirauli in Dhirauli. However, the state government rejected the claim without any fundamental.
The former Minister of Environment also claimed that the Mr. Modi government made this allocation from above in 2019 and now progressing in 2025 without basic legal permissions.
The Madhya Pradesh government, who rejected the charges, was followed in accordance with all the necessary approvals and processes and for the Dhirauli project of the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Climate Change. He said he gave the stage approval (final approval).
He claimed that the project land did not fall under neither the PESA region nor the fifth program area and that a public hearing was held with the rules and gram sabha approval. In addition, 49 Patta said that the total compensation payment process continues at the regional level.
At the beginning of this month, Adani Power said he received the approval of the Ministry of Coal to start mining operations in the Dhirauli mine in the Singrauli region of Madhya Pradesh.
According to the statement, Adani Power received approval from the Ministry of Coal to start operating in the Dhirauli mine.
Published – 17 September 2025 03:27 pm ist
