Jayathi opposes Pawar-led GoM over new no-go norms

NEW DELHI: Union minister for environment and forests Jayanthi Natarajan has taken on agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, countering that Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by the latter cannot sit in judgment on the new proposed no-go policy for mining in forest areas.
The revised draft policy of the environment ministry lays down norms for demarcating forest areas and bars mining of coal and other mineral resources.The policy has been developed after the earlier no-go policy – formulated by the green ministry along with Coal India Limited (CIL) — was rejected by the government. The environment ministry was tasked to prepare a revised set of criteria for safeguarding good forests. In July 2012, the ministry finalized the report, re-christening it as the criteria for demarcating ‘Inviolate Areas’.
Sources said, Natarajan has written to Pawar pointing out that a GoM cannot be the final authority for approving the report, which at present is a draft and has been put out for public comments.
In the last meeting of the GoM in February, sources told TOI, Pawar had asked Natarjan to share the draft report with other members in the GoM.
But the finalized official minutes of the meeting instead reflected that the panel of ministers had discussed and rejected the report, calling it too restrictive for the mining industry. The records wrongly showed that the panel had asked for the ‘restrictive criteria’ to be reworked after another round of consultations and the final report needs to be sent to the GoM for approval.
Sources said that Natarajan has taken exception to the incorrect representation, noting that it is her ministry’s mandate to take a final call on the report. She has reminded that GoM never discussed the new no-go policy, unlike what the minutes of the meeting reflect.
The GoM records had said that the no-go policy be kept in abeyance and suggested piecemeal project clearance. Several coal projects, however, have been cleared since the period the no-go policy has been put in cold storage, including those falling in dense forests.