Supported by favourable opinion from the Attorney General, the Environment Ministry has given more powers to its panel probing into the impacts of and legal issues concerning the Vedanta mining project in Orissa. The ministry has amended the scope of the work of the…panel headed by National Advisory Council (NAC) member N C Saxena…The widening of the panel's scope came after AG G E Vahanvati opined that the Supreme Court nod to Vedanta Resources' bauxite mining project in Niyamgiri does not bind the Environment Ministry to give an automatic clearance to it, and that the project must be approved only on "merits".