GoM raps minister for forest official’s defiance

Bansal cited technicality and refused to follow GoM order.

Updated on: Jun 20, 2012, 01:57:08 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Irked by the defiant attitude of a senior forest service officer under the environment ministry, a group of ministers (GoM) headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has asked minister in-charge Jayanthi Natarajan to ensure that its decisions are complied with.

Additional director general of forests A K Bansal, an additional secretary-level official, had refused to implement a GoM decision on scrapping the ‘go/no-go policy’, instituted by former minister of state for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh, unless the instructions were conveyed by the cabinet itself.

Bansal had conveyed his views at a meeting with coal ministry officials, who wanted the ministry to give due consideration to certain coal projects in areas categorised as no-go in the policy.

In 2009, the environment ministry had classified forested regions into two regions – go and no-go – and imposed a ban on mining in 'no-go' zones, citing environmental reasons.

Mukherjee had raised the issue at a recent GoM meeting on coal-related issues, with reference to a letter written by coal secretary Alok Perti to environment secretary T Chatterjee — complaining that Bansal had refused to abide by the GoM decision.

“The decisions of the GoM were taken after careful consideration of all facts placed before it. However, if some members have divergent views, they have the option of approaching the cabinet or the relevant cabinet committee to seek any change,” the minutes of the GoM quoted Mukherjee as saying.

Natarajan, who was also present at the meeting, said she was not aware of the letter and asked the GoM not to consider the official’s view. Bansal was not available for comment.

The GoM then made several decisions, including consultations between the environment and tribal affairs ministry on transmission lines, to speed up the development process in forest areas. As per the Forest Rights Act, no development work can be carried out

without the informed consent of the gram sabha — a body of villagers. In the case of transmission lines, the GoM wants to restrict it to the approval of the gram panchayat, a body of elected members from village.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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