KG basin: ONGC report on shale gas draws flak

HYDERABAD: Senior scientists on Tuesday demanded that the Centre should reject the “incomplete and biased“ Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report prepared by the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) on exploration of shale gas in Krishna-Godavari Basin.
“It is a crime to put millions of lives in danger for the sake of short-term energy availability .Shale gas is worse than coal and the Centre should stop exploration of this dirty energy ,“ they told a public hearing at Bhimavaram in West Godavari district.
“The approval of the EIA report by the Union ministry of environment, forests and climate control will makes the ministry a mere dispatch office, which is unconcerned with people's wel fare,“ said retired scientists Dr K Babu Rao, Dr K Venkat Reddy , Dr Ahmad Khan, Dr A Srinivasa Rao, and Prof B Krishnarajulu, and Dr Satish Kumar, president, and Dr AV Rao, secretary , of the CSIR Scientists' Service Forum.They submitted a written statement at the public hearing on Tuesday . Y Rajesh, general secretary of Human Rights Forum, East Godavari, said that ONGC officials did not brief villagers about the shale gas and its dangers.
“Officials simply presented a corporate social responsibility report and highlighted the development works carried out by ONGC in the KG Basin villages.People were informed about the public hearing but they were not told that it was with regard to exploration of shale gas,“ he alleged.