For nuclear plant at Jaitapur, only site clearance is granted

MUMBAI: Reacting to reports on Monsanto's admission of pest resistance to its transgenic cotton, Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has said the issue needed to be properly examined.

The Minister said he had also seen an earlier report from the Central Institute for Cotton Research, Nagpur, which pointed out insect resistance to Bt cotton. “There are issues that need to be looked into.”

He was speaking to journalists after a conference on “Climate Change, Copenhagen and Beyond” organised by Supriya Sule, MP, and the Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan here.

Mr. Ramesh was prevented from taking any more question on either Bt brinjal or other transgenic crops by Ms. Sule, who said the “more serious issue” of the conference “would be diluted.”

To a question on profusion of power projects in the Konkan districts of Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg, Mr. Ramesh said that keeping in mind the ecological fragility of the area, as far as possible, studies on the carrying capacity of the land should be conducted. His Ministry could work with the State government to conduct studies. “There is no fatwa on these studies. The studies have to be done by the State, we can only help,” he said. This was happening in other parts of the country like Sikkim.

On the proposed nuclear power plant at Jaitapur in Maharashtra, Mr. Ramesh said that only site clearance was granted and the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report was awaited. In addition, public hearings were mandatory and the Ministry would not give approval unless that took place.

Regarding the Navi Mumbai airport, he clarified that the Terms of Reference (TOR) for conducting the EIA by the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) were submitted in August 2009. But, as the site was sensitive, the Ministry sent a team to examine the area and it submitted a report in January 2010. That report was sent to the CIDCO with a request to enhance the TOR. Now the ball was in the State's court.

Listing some strong measures by his Ministry, Mr. Ramesh said there would be a moratorium on mining in Goa until the State government came up with a mineral policy and was approved by the Ministry. He put on hold the Athirapalli hydel project in Kerala, though it had been granted environmental approval, after many representations on biodiversity concerns. The Ministry sent a show-cause to the Kerala State Electricity Board.

In Karnataka too, the Gundiya hydel project was on hold as also the Hubli Ankola Line which could threaten biodiversity in the Western Ghats. Recently, the Karnataka Cabinet decided to open reserve forest areas for mining in Mysore, Shimoga and other places. ”Fourteen hours after this happened, I wrote to the Chief Minister saying the government cannot implement this without the Centre's permission.”

Employment

Mr. Ramesh stressed that environment and development had to be balanced. “If you don't have new investments, you don't generate employment.”

He agreed that environment had to be protected “but you cannot say ‘no' to development.”