leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley criticised the functioning of the Ministry of Environment and Forests saying it has, regrettably, brought back the quota licence regime, on Monday.
Jaitley’s reaction came a couple of days after Jayanthi Natarajan quit as the Environment Minister, apparently for holding up environmental clearances to hordes of projects which invited a strong criticism from India Inc and even from within the Congress.
“The method of functioning of the Ministry of Environment & Forests in the last one decade has continued to puzzle me. One had hoped that with a regime of de-licensing initiated in 1991, entrepreneurs would not have to lobby in the corridors of power in Delhi. Regrettably, the Ministry of Environment and Forests has brought back the quota licensing regime,” Jaitley wrote on Facebook.
Admitting that economy and ecology must co-exist and India must increase its green cover, Jaitley argued there has to be a rational well-defined criteria of granting environmental clearances or for refusing to grant them.
“This involves being a Government of rules and not Government of men (or women). The MoEF projects itself as a professional ministry where executive decision making with regard to environmental clearances is exercised. When the Supreme Court decided to have an additional watch-dog in terms of the ‘Centrally-empowered Committee’, the MoEF strongly protested. They argued that the Court cannot usurp the function of the Executive,” Jaitley stated.