Ramesh defends clearing coal mining project in C'garh

Rural Development Minister's statement came a day after the NGT set aside the forest clearance to captive coal blocks in Chattisgarh given by him in 2011

Union Minister Jairam Ramesh, who received flak from the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for his decision as Environment Minister to clear three cases of coal mining in Chattishgarh, today defended his action, saying his "speaking order speaks for itself".

The Rural Development Minister's statement came a day after the NGT set aside the forest clearance (FC) to captive coal blocks in Parsa East and Kante- Basan in Chattisgarh given by him in 2011.

Then the Minister had issued a four-page speaking order, citing the reasons why he was granting clearance to the projects.

In its order yesterday, the NGT made scathing observations against the then Environment Minister's decision to overrule the recommendations of the FAC, which had declined to recommend the proposal thrice.

Defending his decision, Ramesh said that "while FAC was carrying out its due diligence, I was doing my own assessments enjoined upon me as Minister".

"Perhaps it might also have escaped the NGT's attention that the FAC is only an advisory committee which submits its recommendations to the Minister concerned," the Minister said in a written statement.

"It is not for me to challenge the wisdom of the NGT, a quasi-judicial body that I myself was entirely responsible for envisioning, navigating the legislation through Parliament and then getting it off the ground in every way," he said.

"All I can say is that after having been pilloried for not clearing projects, now I am being attacked for having cleared projects. I am being accused of being anthropocentric while in the past I was accused of being obsessed with trees, tigers, rivers, mangroves, coasts and mountains, apart from elephants, hornbills, and other species.

Clearly you can't win them all. My concience is clear. The speaking order speaks for itself," Ramesh said.

In his speaking order, the Minister had said, "The first reason for my rejection of the FAC recommendation arises from my understanding that these coal blocks are clearly in the fringe and actually not in the biodiversity rich Hasdeo-Arand forest region (a no-go area).