Practice of 'tax' payment in env ministry has ended: Javadekar

Believing in "development without destruction", the government has ended the practice of "tax" being paid for environmental clearances, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said today as he targeted the previous UPA regime.
Contending that giving clearance to projects was not a "crime", he sought to dispel the "myth" that protecting environment amounted to stopping development.
The Modi government "holds the flag of environment in one hand and the agenda of development in another," Javadekar said while replying to the Demand for Grants of Environment Ministry which was passed later.
Attacking the previous Congress-led UPA government, he said, "We have made the system transparent. The game of office-office is over. The tax which needed to be paid earlier has been stopped... This (government) is mission without commission."

Although he did not elaborate, he was clearly referring to the "Jayanthi tax", a term used to point to corruption in the ministry when it was headed by the then Congress leader Jayanthi Natarajan, who has subsequently quit the party.
Giving details of the measures being taken by the government to tackle air and water pollution, Javadekar rejected the charge that environment was being compromised to push various projects.

"The government is committed to the agenda of 'development without destruction', he said while rebutting the opposition charge that his ministry was hastily clearing projects.
He said number of projects cleared had come down from 1522 and 1317 in 2012 and 2013 respectively to 783 in 2014 and the land diverted for them in the these years was 25,000, 41,000 and 35,000 hectares respectively.

At the same time, he questioned, "Is giving permission (to projects) a crime?".