Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Resources ran a "covert lobbying campaign’’ to weaken key environmental regulations during the Covid pandemic and the Narendra Modi- government approved the changes without public consultation, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) alleged in a fresh report.

OCCRP's report on Vedanta comes a day after the media group published a report on Adani Group that said the group family used "opaque" funds to invest in stocks.

George Soros-backed OCCRP further maintained the Centre implemented the changes using ``illegal methods’’ and in one case, Vedanta led a push to ensure mining companies could produce up to 50 per cent more without new environmental approvals.

Further, Cairn India which represents its oil and gas business, successfully lobbied to have public hearings scrapped for exploratory drilling in oil blocks it won in auctions. Following this, six of Cairn’s controversial oil projects in Rajasthan were approved despite local opposition, the report alleged.

``Vedanta Ltd is one of the leading natural resources organisations in India. We operate with an objective of import substitution by enhancing domestic production in a sustainable manner. In view of the same, continuous representations are submitted for consideration to the government in the best interest of national development and India's march towards self-reliance in natural resources,’’ a Vedanta spokesperson said.

The relaxations took root in 2021 during the Covid pandemic. Prakash Jawdekar was then the country’s environment minister.

According to the OCCRP report, Anil Agarwal, chairman, Vedanta Resources, said in a letter in January 2021 to Jawdekar that the government could add “impetus” to India’s “rapid” economic recovery by allowing mining companies to boost production by up to 50 per cent without having to secure new environmental clearances.

The OCCRP report claimed that Javadekar quickly got to work and he scribbled "VIMP [Very Important]’’, on a letter which directed the secretary of his ministry and the director general of forestry to "discuss [the] policy issue".

Subsequently, in June 2021, Vedanta’s chief executive, Sunil Duggal, wrote directly to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, arguing the Prime Minister could “boost the economic engine immediately” by doing away with the method of granting environmental approvals.
This, Duggal said, would not only drive growth but also create jobs and help to “alleviate poverty” in the “backward” parts of the country.

Modi’s office forwarded this letter to the environment secretary and by October 2021, the ministry, led by Bhupender Yadav, published a memo that allowed mines to expand production by only 20 per cent without public hearings. Yadav had replaced Jawedkar in the ministry in July 2021.

While this was less than half what Agarwal and the mining industry lobby group had wanted, in April 2022, the environment ministry published a memo scrapping the requirement for miners to hold public consultations when expanding production by up to 40 percent even as written feedback was needed when production is increased by up to 50 per cent.

``Though Vedanta lobbied hard for the pandemic-era changes to India’s environmental regulations, it’s hard to say whether Modi’s government was acting specifically to benefit the company, as other companies also stood to benefit’’ the report said.

OCCRP, however, claimed that it found evidence that Vedanta has been an important donor to the BJP: two entities linked to a Vedanta subsidiary donated a combined Rs 43.5 crore to the party between 2016 and 2020.

The donations from just one of these trusts, Bhadram Janhit Shalika, put it in the top 10 donors to the BJP between the fiscal years 2016-2017 and 2021-22, according to data compiled by the Association for Democratic Reforms, an Indian advocacy group, the OCCRP report added.

Adani stocks rally

Most of the Adani group stocks on Friday ended in the positive territory as investors took the OCCRP report on their strides.

Seven of the 10 listed group stocks ended with a green tick after some of them initially came under pressure.