A group of Ministers has been constituted by the Indian Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh to tackle the controversial “no go” policy of the environment minister Jairam Ramesh.
The environment ministry has declared 203 mining blocks as off-limits, collectively these blocks are capable of producing 600 million tonnes of coal annually.
The ministerial committee has been set up to demarcate the forests that the environment ministry wants to be declared out of bounds for coal mining. Jairam Ramesh would have faced a concentrated attack from his Cabinet colleagues but for this action of the Prime Minsiter.
The enforcement of environmental laws has made Ramesh a natural target of Coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal. He had begun the attack by reading from a three page note in which he said that the coal deficient faced by India would never be met if the policy was implemented as it is.
Jaiswal has been actively drumming up support for dilution of the “no go” mining policy. He has successfully mobilized commerce minister Anand Sharma and surface transport minister Kamal Nath. In the wings agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, civil aviation minister Praful Patel and steel minister Virbhadra Singh.
The Prime Minsiter said that the trade-off between energy and ecology was an important concern. He also said that while energy is needed the protection of the environment is also necessary. The “no go” policy designed last year will affect present and future mining projects.