He has stated that DPC, which has stopped the trial runs after receiving closure notice on Friday evening, thus owes an explanation.

Mr Antulay, who is the son-in-law of the former Maharashtra chief minister AR Antulay told The Financial Express that the company did not take due permission from the MPCB to start the trial runs for the block b (722 mw) of phase-II since January 21.

"The company although had been granted a consent to establish in 1996 for phase-II, it has not sought consent to operate from the MPCB and without obtaining it, launched the trial runs," he observed.

Mr Antulay said that the MPCB officials from its regional office at Kolhapur and sub-regional office at Ratnagiri have been asked to visit the Dabhol project site and file a detailed and latest report in this connection. "The officials are expected to submit their report on Tuesday night or Wednesday," he added.

Mr Antulay said that he along with the MPCB officials would meet the DPC officials at the earliest to listen to their point of view. However, he made it clear that the DPC would have to complete necessary formalities before restarting the trial runs of block b of phase-II. "The company can't just let it go, as during trial runs the pollutants have been discharged," he added.

The DPC sources confirmed that the meeting scheduled for Tuesday did not take place and said that it would seek a fresh appointment of MPC chairman on Wednesday.

On the state government's directives to hold a comprehensive inquiry into the complaints of high emission and discharge of non-treated water, Mr Antulay said such a probe would be carried out after the matter related to the trial runs is settled.

Finance secretary to meet top officials
The Union finance secretary Ajith Kumar has convened a meeting on March 16 with the Maharashtra government officials to discuss the issue related to the invocation of counter guarantee for the non-payment of the December bill of Rs 102 crore by the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB). The state is likely to be represented by chief secretary V Ranganathan, principal secretary (finance) Anupam Dasgupta, principal secretary (energy) VM Lal and MSEB chairman Vinay Bansal. The government is likely to make a strong plea for the Centre's intervention to bail out forever as far as the Dabhol project and its payments are concerned.