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SW: →Protests against expansion plans: added link to Tamnar II
On May 28, 2011, two indigenous rights activists, Ramesh Agrawal and Dr Harihar Patel, were arrested in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh and denied release on bail.<ref name="Amnesty">[http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA20/025/2011/en/93b9014b-e2fa-4936-8282-5b67cd6f1ef6/asa200252011en.html "Indian environmental activists held"] Amnesty International, June 2, 2011.</ref>
The state police charged the two men with “circulating defamatory material”, “disrupting public order” and “causing alarm and panic among the public” at a May 8, 2010 mandatory public consultation, held by the state pollution board at Tamnar village, relating to the [[Tamnar II Project]] proposed expansion of a coal-fired plant run by Jindal Steel and Power.<ref name="Amnesty"/>
Agrawal and Patel expressed concerns that the expansion would lead to the forcible acquisition of lands from the surrounding local communities by the authorities. The two activists had objected to the proposal and cited an official inspection report which stated that the expansion began before the mandatory clearances were given. Ramesh Agrawal also successfully petitioned India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests to temporarily suspend the terms of reference for the expansion. Following a complaint relating to the delay, the state authorities decided to arrest the two activists.<ref name="Amnesty"/>
