E-mail exchange between Alcan't in India and Alcan - April-May, 2004
Kashipur Solidarity
<alcantinindia@yahoo.com>
To michael.hanley@alcan.com
cc
2004-04-29 01:42 PM
Subject Release of Utkal documents
Dear Mr. Hanley,
As agreed to in our meeting
after the Alcan AGM last week, I am
requesting that you provide the date for the release of the Environmental Impact
Assessment completed by Engineers India Ltd. for the Utkal project as
well as for the documentation showing that 23 of 24 project affected
villages officially support the proposed project. It was agreed that you would
provide this date sometime within this week (April 26-30).
Our group may be reached
through this email address, or by calling
QPIRG-McGill at 514-398-7432.
As you may have learned
from the media reports that issued from the
AGM, we were glad to have an opportunity to meet with you. Given your open
manner and your committment to provide a date for these documents, we have
currently suspended our public activities regarding the Utkal project.
We eagerly await an opportunity to see the documents behind Alcan's claims
about the situation in Kashipur and to thereby continue a transparent
and honest exchange about this issue.
Thank you kindly,
Abhimanyu Sud
Subject: Re: Release of
Utkal documents
To: "Kashipur Solidarity" <alcantinindia@yahoo.com>
CC: Jeremy.Jonas@alcan.com, Catherine.MacLean@alcan.com
From: Michael.Hanley@alcan.com
Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 07:57:47 -0400
Dear Mr. Sud,
I was also pleased to meet
you and have a brief discussion following
the Alcan AGM.
I can confirm the following:
that in the 1994-95 timeframe,
following the completion of the
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) by Engineers India Ltd. (EIL),
the project obtained the necessary environmental clearances and
approvals; since then, and in the normal course of events, the clearances and
approvals have lapsed (which may explain why they are not readily
available in the public domain); the necessary approval extension requests are
in progress;
the signed motions from 23 of 24 elected village councils have been
requested, but I have yet to obtain a definitive date as to when
they would be received and then translated.
I would also like to reiterate
my comments to you when we met, i.e.
that this project is in development with our Utkal partners, and that the
following key conditions will need to be met before Alcan is in a
position to approve moving from development into construction:
satisfaction with the
result of the judicial inquiry conducted by
the State; completion of revised shareholders agreement following the recent
exit of one shareholder (Hydro); extension of all necessary project permits
and approvals;
update and completion of the project's business case, i.e. that the
project meets Alcan sustainability criteria from an economic, social
and environmental perspective (which includes securing the necessary
support from the local communities).
In the spirit of continuing
this healthy transparent and honest
dialogue, let me suggest the following as next steps:my team and I will be meeting
our
project partners in the upcoming weeks to discuss key project matters;
we would propose to meet with you in our Montreal office following
this meeting, during the week of June 14, in order to provide you with a
project update, and more information with regard to the EIS (you
could also review the initial EIL report in our offices) and the signed
motions (hopefully we would have received and translated them by
then); at that meeting, it would also be an opportunity for you to provide
us copies of the two studies that you had discussed with Jeremy Jonas,
as per your commitment to us.
The only other request
I would make, which you can respond to in the
interim or at the time of the proposed meeting in June, is for Alcan
and our project partners to obtain a more meaningful understanding of your
organization, the interests being represented, and the source of the
organization's funding. It is very important (and normal) to Alcan to
have this understanding when it engages in a dialogue of this nature.
I look forward to hearing
from you if there a day and time during the
week of June 14 when you would be interested and available to meet.
Regards.
Michael Hanley