Ministry hoodwinks Ramesh

The environment ministry may have hoodwinked its in-charge Jairam Ramesh to help a company escape action initiated by the minister.

Updated on: Mar 22, 2011, 24:32:40 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The environment ministry may have hoodwinked its in-charge Jairam Ramesh to help a company escape action initiated by the minister.

The ministry’s forest division issued a circular on January 6, 2011, inserting the proviso “it is advisable” in the original rule without the minister’s approval.

The ministry had issued a notice to Jindal Steel and Power Limited on December 14, 2010, on why its environment clearance should not be revoked for starting construction in non-forestland for its integrated steel plant in Kerjang in Orissa before the forest clearance was granted in October 2010.

A ministry panel found the allegation to be true in December. Jindal steel admitted that the construction has taken place but cited a clause in an agreement with the Orissa government to start work within three years of signing it.

In the meantime, the Forest Advisory Committee, which allowed diversion of forestland, met and recommended insertion of key words — "it is advisable" — in the guidelines of the Act. The revised rule said, "if a project involves forest as well as non-forestland, it is advisable that the work should not be started on non-forest land till the approval of the government for release of the forestland under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 has been given".

The forest division’s explanation for the change was that since approval was given for diversion of forestland in October 2010, the December show-cause notice had no value.

“It was only on February 17, I discovered the existence of the January 6 circular. The circular has been issued without my approval but after a discussion in the forest advisory committee. I took serious note of the this lapse and ordered that the status quo ante should be restored,” Ramesh said on Monday.

On minister’s direction the forest division, issued a revised circular on Monday. Ramesh also said it was beyond doubt that Jindal Steel had started construction in the non-forestland before getting final and directed the state government to initiate action against the company.

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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