Pranab to head environment GoM

To find a solution to wrangling between ministries over slow pace of environment clearances, the Central government has constituted a Group of Ministers headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukerjee to look into all aspects of environment clearance process.

Updated on: Feb 3, 2011, 23:45:57 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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To find a solution to wrangling between ministries over slow pace of environment clearances, the Central government has constituted a Group of Ministers headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukerjee to look into all aspects of environment clearance process.

The Cabinet Secretariat has said the ambit of the GoM will not be restricted to only coal projects as stated earlier but will cover all the infrastructure projects, which are getting delayed due to delay in environment clearances.

The ministries of coal, power and road transport had accused Ramesh of causing delay to key infrastructure projects on environmental grounds. They have already registered a strong complaint against Ramesh at a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this week. The PM has decided to constitute a committee headed by BK Chaturvedi, member of the Planning Commission to look into environmental delay regarding coal linkages for power projects.

The environment ministry had imposed a go-no go policy for coal mining resulting in no new project getting clearance in the last one year, key power projects have been stuck as coal linkages have not been cleared and several road highway projects passing through wildlife sanctuaries are also on hold.

The GoM, which will have Coal minister Shriprakash Jaiswal, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Deputy chairperson of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia as members.

A senior government official said that the GoM would recommend a new framework for speeding environment and forest clearances for key infrastructure projects without much damage the environment. “The effort will be made to ensure that statutory period to give clearances is met,” an official said. All ministries have been asked to submit their proposals for consideration of the GoM.

The GoM will also look into ways to ensure compensatory afforestation and environmental rehabilitation by the industry. Environment minister Jairam Ramesh has already proposed that instead of the industry the approval should be taken by a government agency. For instance, in case of a coal mine, the Coal ministry should take environmental clearances instead of the project proponent, the existing practice.

Coal Minister Jaiswal expected the GoM to submit its recommendations to the government within a month of its first meeting, the date for which is yet to be decided.

The brief

GoM would recommend a new framework for speeding environment and forest clearances for key infrastructure projects without much damage the environment

It will also look into ways to ensure compensatory afforestation and environmental rehabilitation by the industry

All ministries have been asked to submit their proposals for consideration of the GoM.

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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