Numbers reveal Ramesh ‘talks green, but acts brown’

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh's environmental activism is restricted to a few big ticket projects as approval rate of the ministry is "alarmingly high" say activists. Between August 2009 and July 2010 as many as 535 projects of the total 769 were approved, RTI query has revealed. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Jan 23, 2011, 24:54:05 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Environment minister Jairam Ramesh's environmental activism is restricted to a few big ticket projects as approval rate of the ministry has not changed, analysis of the environmental approvals given during the minister's tenure has revealed.

The ministry's own information provided under the Right To Information (RTI) Act shows that between August 2009 and July 2010 as many as 535 projects of the total 769 were approved.

Only six were rejected and remaining were under consideration at the time of providing the information.

"It is clear that the ministry continues to have an unhealthy rate of approval," said Ritwik Datta, who represents Environment Impact Assessment Resource and Response Centre.

The data shows that the approval rate of the ministry during Ramesh's tenure has not changed as compared to A Raja, who was environment minister between 2004-2007.

"No wonder that many believe that the ministry talks green but continues with its brown agenda," he said.

Ramesh has hit headlines by targeting big-ticket projects such as Lavasa Lake City Project near Pune and Vedanta Resources Aluminum refinery and Posco's Steel Plant in Orissa.

"Bulk of the problem is the legacy issue. New investments are more environment compliant," the minister explained, while addressing representatives of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Delhi this week.

The data also shows that criticism of Ramesh over his go-no go policy for coal mining by the coal minister Shriprakash Jaiswal may not be totally ill-founded.

Of the 58 projects considered by the Expert Appraisal Committee, only 31 were approved although none were rejected.

"In many project environment impact of them is being studied," a ministry official said.

And, there was no discrimination between the projects in coal and non-coal sector. Of the 146 projects considered in the non-coal sector, three were rejected and 71 approved.

Another area of confrontation for Ramesh with fellow ministers -- River Valley Hydro projects -- has 100% approval rate.

Of the eight projects considered all were approved. It included Polavaram Dam project in Andhra Project, which is now being opposed by both Chhattisgarh and Orissa.

What is worse that since October 2010, there is no grievance redressal mechanism for people against the approvals given by the ministry.

The National Environment Appellate Authority has been shut, as National Green Tribunal has been set up.

The tribunal is not functional as none of its members except chairperson Justice Lokeshwar Panta have been appointed and rules framed to make the commission work.

"We expect to notify the rules and appoint new members by middle of February," a ministry official said.

The ministry has also failed Ramesh over transparency in clearances.

The information under sought under the transparency law Right To Information Act mostly remained unheeded.

HT had filed an application and a subsequent appeal but the ministry is yet to respond.

Same has been the case with Himanshu Thakkar of an anti-dam NGO.

Whither redressal?

Since Oct 2010, there is no grievance redressal mechanism.

The National Environment Appellate Authority was shut since the National Green Tribunal has been set up.

The tribunal is not functional as none of its members except chairperson Justice Lokeshwar Panta have been appointed.

“We expect to notify rules and appoint new members by middle of February,” an official said.

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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