The Union environment ministry has withdrawn its demand for a Rs 200 crore restoration fund from Adani Ports & SEZ for damage to the environment imposed during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, the biggest penalty for green violations.

re-reported Rediff, citing a Business Standard (paywalled) report:

In a case against the project before the Gujarat high court, the Union environment ministry in 2012 constituted the Sunita Narain Committee to investigate allegations of destruction of the environment at the Mundra project site.

The committee found multiple violation of regulations, large-scale destruction of the local ecology, including damage to creeks and mangroves, and illegal reclamation of land.

It recommended a ban on the project’s north port where wide-scale damage had been caused and sought Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion), or 1 per cent of the project cost, whichever was higher, as reparation. This was beyond the maximum Rs 1 lakh fine the Environment Protection Act allows.

Update: The government has denied that any fine was waived and that instead a "more serious" responsibility was imposed on the Adani company instead, saying:

The inference drawn by the news report is not correct. The present government has not cancelled fine of Rs 200 crore. This decision of the ministry is much more stringent than asking for Rs 200 crore from APSEZL because here in this case whatever has been recommended by the Sunita Narain Committee for damage restoration and further conservation has to be borne by APSEZL which otherwise was limited to Rs 200 crore.

It is amply clear that the Environment Ministry has not withdrawn its demand for Rs 200 crore restoration fund. This government has passed an order in a legally correct framework and also imposed more serious responsibility upon the project proponent without any cost limit.