Ramesh backs down, makes peace with Jaiswal
Finding himself increasingly isolated in the Cabinet, minister of environment & forests Jairam Ramesh, has worked out a compromise with minister of mining Sriprakash Jaiswal.
Mr Ramesh had been playing the obstructionist by classifying 30 per cent of the area in nine coal fields as “no go” for mining, according to senior sources in the mining ministry.
Mr Jaiswal in turn sought the assistance of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pointing out that such a classification would put 619 million tones of coal production out of reach of the ministry.
Mr Ramesh had initially resisted the formulation whereby a maximum of15-20 per cent of forests were classified as being out-of-bounds for mining but finding himself increasingly isolated in the Cabinet, he has been forced to bend to pressure.
“The nine coal fields were covering 4,50,000 ha but now we have agreed to have mining in over 3,80,000 ha. We have no objection to underground mining. Our problem has been with open cast mining,” said the minister.
This is being read as a victory for several industrial houses including Vedanta Resources and South Korea’s Posco. Posco has been demanding 1600 he of land (of which a large portion is forested) to set up its proposed 12-million-tonne capacity steel plant in Orissa while Vedanta wants to push ahead with a long-stalled bauxite mines.
Dr N.C. Saxena (a member of the fact finding team set up by MoEF to look into the implementation of the Forest Rights Bill) is presently visiting Lanjigarh in Orissa to get a first-hand impression of the plight of the tribals who will be displaced if Vedanta is given over 660 he of forested land.
Mr Ramesh admitted Dr Saxena is facing problems in get information from the local population.
“Every effort is being made to prevent Dr Saxena from reaching Niyamgiri. The local population of tribals are being intimidated not to speak to him,” the minister said.
Regarding the delays in the Posco project, Mr Ramesh clarified, “The MoEF held a meeting on this subject on July 5. We have communicated to the Orissa state government that the material sent to us is not authentic. It should also be sent in English and not in Oriya. We are now waiting to hear from them on this matter.”
Mr Jaiswal enjoys the support of power minister Sushilkumar Shinde who has been asked to increase power generation in the Eleventh Plan to 78,577 mw. Seventy per cent of India’s power sector is fired by coal .Several chief ministers including Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi have also written to Manmohan Singh asking for his intervention over a coal block in the Hasdeo Arand fieild.
Mr Jairam Ramesh realizes he is fighting a losing battle even as he has delayed or scrapped clearances for nearly 100 mining projects.
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