Environment Ministry was not "relinquishing authority" for giving clearances to projects but only introducing simplified procedures to check delays, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said today.
The Minister said that after taking charge of Environment and Forests Ministry he was surprised as all chief ministers and MPs wanted to meet him as projects from their states were stuck.
"Files of projects involving five hectares of forest land used to come to me. We took a policy based decision, and changed it from 5 hectares to 40 hectares. 90 per cent of the files were of less than 40 hectares.
"People said 90 per cent of files would not come, they thought he is talking about relinquishing authority. But it is about giving simpler processes," Javadekar said at a conference on real estate sector.
Talking about the steps taken by his ministry to streamline the processes, he said, "What we want to do.... whether it is coal mines or sand mines, first there will be the process of environment clearances. And only those which are cleared we will sell and this will also result in right bidding also and the right price will be fetched."
Javadekar also flagged the issue of indiscriminate sandmining in rivers across the country and said it was one of the reasons leading to imbalances.
"Why cannot a 'lakshman rekha' be created to ensure that such activities are within a limit," he said, in the backdrop of the floods in Jammu and Kashmir.
He blamed the the tendency prevalent across all areas to take "short cuts" which has led to such situations. Javadekar said that even after 67 years of independence, crores still don't have houses.
"So they are seeking houses even in river(beds)," he said. He added such a situation existed not just in J&K but across the country because people are unable to get affordable housing.
