Natarajan, Maken protest 12th plan, write to Montek Singh

After health minister Gulam Nabi Azad, planning commission deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia has to face dissent from environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan and sports minister Ajay Maken, Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Sep 20, 2012, 23:06:26 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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After health minister Gulam Nabi Azad, planning commission deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia has to face dissent from environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan and sports minister Ajay Maken.

Both of them have written to Ahluwalia protesting against the 12th-five year plan document approved at the full planning commission meeting on Saturday headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Natarajan is apparently unhappy over prescription of domestic mitigation targets for global warming causing carbon dioxide emissions.

India has always opposed any mitigation targets for developing countries in international climate change negotiations and inclusion of such targets in 12th plan would have diluted country’s international stand.

Taking up the issue with Ahluwalia, Natarajan had apparently said that the plan document will constrain India’s space in its international negotiating strategy. She also asked the deputy chairperson to remove all references to Indian stand on negotiations from the plan document.

Ahluwalia has, however, replied to her concerns but the controversial portions were part of the document approved.

Sports minister Ajay Maken concern was that 12th plan allocation for his ministry will jeopardize the target to win around 25 medals in 2020 Olympics.

In the immediate future, the plan allocation of Rs 6,648 crore, which is 15 % less as compared to 11th plan, will mean discontinuation of certain initiatives aimed at improving India performance in 2016 Rio Olympics.

Maken on Monday wrote to Ahluwalia protesting against the meager allocations and sought a revision.

Panel has already decided to remove the sections objected by Azad, especially reference to consultation with Health Ministry as a “peer review”. But, on concerns raised by Natarajan and Maken Ahluwalia has assured to consider them sympathetically.

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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