Mukul Sinha January 15, 2014
Truth of Gujarat
A Man paddling through the polluted waters of Sabarmati, AhmedabadA Man paddling through the polluted waters of Sabarmati, AhmedabadModi has one of the worst records in protecting the environment of Gujarat. In a report published in DNA on 22nd March, 2010, Gujarat was declared as the most polluted states of India. The report said:

According to a recent report by the central government, Gujarat accounts for 29% of the 6.2 million tonnes of hazardous waste while it is 25% in Maharashtra. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has declared Gujarat as the most polluted State in the country. The conclusion has been based on the increasing levels of pollution and toxic wastes.

Most of the major Industries permitted to function in Gujarat either do not have environmental clearances at all or are carried out illegally like the mining industries. One of his own Minister Babubhai Bokhiria has been convicted of illegal mining and sentenced to three years jail term.One of the largest business houses of Gujarat and a close crony of Modi, the Adani Group has also been also been carrying out their major industrial enterprises without environmental clearance. Yesterday,(13th January, 2014) the Gujarat High Court finally caught up with the fraud committed by Adanis while operating in their SEZ without any environmental clearance.

Gujarat High Court on Monday, ordered the immediate shut down of all activities of 12 units of the Adani Port Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) at Mundra as the Adanis did not obtain the environmental clearance under the Environment Impact Assessment , Notification 2006. The Division Bench of the High Court presided by Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya which was hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by the farmers of the Naivaal village, rejected the contention of the Adani group for deemed clearance. During the pendency of the petition, an expert panel had been constituted by Minsitry of Evironment and Forest(MoEF) led by Sunita Narain that had given a report the APSEZ had caused widespread damage to the mangroves across a 75 hectare conservation zone. The Division Bench observed that APSEZ had blatantly violated the environmental norms! The Central Government has been directed to consider the question of grant ing clearance as per law in next one month.

Now this man who has no respect for the environment of his own State and has given a free license to his cronies to destroy the environment in the race for profits, goes to Goa to declare his love for the environment and taunt the former Minister of Environment & Forest Jayanti Natarajan for not granting clearances and insinuating that she was charging Jayanti-tax! Modi tweeted after his Goa meet on Sunday, the 12th January, 2014 as under:

Assured people of Goa that we will safeguard the environment & at the same time bring transparency in mining for the growth of India.

People like Modi now have a malleable Minister of Environment in Mr Moily who takes the pride of giving environmental clearance for industries investing over 1.5 lakh crores after the resignation of Jayanti Natrajan including the POSCO project which had not gotten environmental clearance for 8 years.

NO POSCO NO POSCOIt is very clear that the Manmohan Government has bent backwards to the corporate houses in view of the impending elections and have started granting environmental clearances without taking into consideration the environmental impact as required under the 2006 notification.It is the total insensitivity of people like Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi towards the environment that will tax the coming generation who will be left in a barren planet. Let us end this article by hoping that the struggling people of Orissa succeed in stopping POSCO, the South Korean giant to exploit our country.

POSCO AgitationPOSCO Agitation

 

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