The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) in a fresh article has said Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta was behind a “covert” lobbying campaign to weaken key environmental regulations during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The article, which was published on Thursday, said that the Indian government approved the changes without public consultation and implemented them using what experts say are illegal methods.
The OCCRP said in January 2021, Vedanta Group Chairman Anil Agarwal told former environment minister Prakash Javadekar that the government could add “impetus” to India’s economic recovery by allowing mining companies to boost production by up to 50 per cent without having to secure new environmental clearances.
The George Soros-backed news organisation claimed Vedanta’s oil business, Cairn India, also successfully lobbied to have public hearings scrapped for exploratory drilling in oil blocks it won in government auctions.
OCCRP’s report on Vedanta comes a day after the media group published a report on Adani Group claiming that that millions were invested in some publicly traded stocks of Adani Group via “opaque” Mauritius funds that “obscured” involvement of alleged business partners of the Adani family.
