'No need to panic over central notification on Western Ghats'

With certain political quarters and farmers' outfits in Kerala voicing concern over the Centre's notification to implement salient recommendations of the Kasturirangan Committee on Western Ghats conservation, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy tonight said there was no room to panic over the issue.
In a statement, he said the notification by the Ministry of Environment and Forests is concerned only with issues like mining, quarrying, construction of big projects and building complexes in economically fragile areas of the Western Ghats and they would not come in the way of the common man and their livelihood.
Chandy also refuted the report that the experts committee set up by the state government on the issue had been rendered redundant with the central notification.

The committee would go ahead with its work and once its report was obtained the state government would approach the Centre again with its proposals.
The present notification should not be taken as the final word on the issue and there was no need to agitate over it, Chandy said.
Apart from farmers outfits, some political parties like Kerala Congress(M), an ally of the Congress, have expressed serious concern over the central decision.