PMO push for big projects

To remove green hurdle from big-ticket projects, the Prime Minister’s Office has reportedly asked environment ministry not to stop projects where 50 per cent of the project cost has already been utilised on Friday.

Updated on: Aug 6, 2010, 23:46:39 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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To remove green hurdle from big-ticket projects, the Prime Minister’s Office has reportedly asked environment ministry not to stop projects where 50 per cent of the project cost has already been utilised on Friday.

This comes in wake of environment minister Jairam Ramesh imposing a moratorium on four projects in Andhra Pradesh on the grounds that the land, on which these projects were coming, were either on wetland or fell within the ambit of coastal zone regulations.

The ministry decision has created a huge furore with state Chief Minister K. Rosaiah writing to Prime Minister stating that the ministry’s decision could jeopardise projects worth 20,000 MW in the state.

Rosaiah had also stated that project proponents have made huge investments in the project following environment clearance given by the ministry.

Several MPs from the state had also briefed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on this issue following which his office is said to have asked the ministry not to block big-ticket projects.

The message was reportedly conveyed at meeting of officials from Coal, Power and Environment ministry on Friday. It follows the decision of an informal Group of Ministers to allow construction of a hydel project at Loharinag Pala in Uttarakhand, where National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) had made substantial investment.

“The PMO is involved, my ministry, environment ministry and Planning Commission is involved in finding a solution to the issue,” Coal Minister Sriprakash said on Friday.

Among other issues discussed was categorisation of go and no-go areas for coal mining. A government panel had suggested that “no-go” areas for mining should not cover more than 30 per cent of forestland.

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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