MoEF officials are green terrorists: builders

The Confederation of Real Estate Developers of India (CREDAI) has started a drive against ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) officials calling them ‘green terrorists’, blaming them for unnecessary delay in their projects, which they say, is causing huge monetary loss and regressing the growth of the industry.

The Confederation of Real Estate Developers of India (CREDAI) has started a drive against ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) officials calling them ‘green terrorists’, blaming them for unnecessary delay in their projects, which they say, is causing huge monetary loss and regressing the growth of the industry.

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CREDAI has appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene in the matter.

Lalit Kumar Jain, president, CREDAI, said: “It takes at least two years to get an environmental clearance. The ministry also checks aspects like sewer lines, nearest fire station, etc. that are not related to it at all.”

Most aspects checked by MoEF would have already been checked by the the civic body resulting in duplication of work and wastage of time, he said.

He said MoEF issued a circular on Monday saying they would entertain no presentation from the builders till the land has the Non-Agricultural (NA) tag. “The rules are impractical as NA is not possible till the MoEF has cleared the project,” said Jain. He said builders are already committed to safeguarding the environment and have been advocating green buildings across the nation.

However, environmentalists ridiculed Jain’s claims saying builders should first introspect before blaming the ministry. “Over the years, builders

have flouted rules and caused irreparable damage to the environment,” said environmentalist Rishi Agarwal.