Oil India stalls $24m blowout compensation
Oil India stands accused of failing to set aside Rs200cr ($24m) for environmental restoration work at the Baghjan-5 well blowout site.
On August 16 (2023), a nine-member committee appointed by the quasi-judicial National Green Tribunal (NGT) submitted a report saying: "Oil India has not kept Rs200 crores in a 'separate account' as directed by the honourable NGT." Still unclear is whether Oil India has put the money into a separate account since the committee submitted its report on August 16.
On March 10 (2023), the NGT directed Oil India to allocate the money to be spent under the direction of a nine-member NGT-appointed committee. Shantanu Kumar Dutta, Assam Pollution Control Board member secretary, and a committee member wrote to Oil India on April 13 (2023) to check it was following the NGT directive, soon after the committee held its first meeting on April 10 (2023).
Oil India responded on April 24 (2023), reassuring Dutta that it had arranged the necessary amount. But after visiting the blowout site, the committee held a second meeting on May 18 (2023) and a third on July 3 (2023) before submitting its report confirming that the money was not yet in a separate account, despite Oil India's earlier promise.
On May 27 (2020), the Baghjan-5 workover well experienced a blowout, killing three and laying waste to huge tracts of surrounding land. Court cases followed, and inquiry committees were set up.
Set up on March 10 (2023), the latest nine-member committee was tasked to prepare a final action plan and oversee the restoration of the blowout site and the protected Dibru-Saikhowa National Park and Maguri Motapung Wetland areas. On the committee are RS Prasad, an IAS officer and additional chief secretary in the Assam government's environment and forests department; Imtienla Ao, deputy director general of the forest service's integrated regional office in Guwahati and MK Choudhury, regional director of the Central Pollution Control Board in Shillong.
Also included on the committee are Satyendra Singh, additional principal chief conservator of forests (wetland); Khanindra Nath Das, senior wildlife warden; Swapneel Paul, deputy commissioner Tinsukia district; Jay Sarma, additional deputy commissioner, Dibrugarh; Dr Parameswar Iyer, director IIT Guwahati; and Assam Pollution Control Board member secretary Dutta.