Green Ministry not responsible for power outage: Jayanthi Natarajan

Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan on Wednesday clarified that the Green Ministry is not responsible for power outage or any energy shortage in the country while noting that they have granted clearance to generate 210,000 MW of power in the last five years.

She said this when her attention was drawn to reports that the main reasons for the failure of the power grids and for any problems in power generation is the lack of green clearance to power projects.

"...the MoEF is not the reason or cause for power outage or any energy shortage...In most cases, including coal and thermal power projects, clearances given by the Environment Ministry far exceed targets and even capacity projected for the future", she said in a statement here.

"The 11th Five Year Plan has projected a target of 50,000 MW of additional thermal power capacity; the 12th Plan asks for 100,000 MW. Thus the total projection of power requirement for the 12th Five Year Plan is 100,000 MW.

"In the past 5 years, up to 2011, the MoEF has granted environmental clearance to 210,000 MW power - that is 60,000 MW more power than has been proposed until 2017," Natarajan said.

Noting that the mandate of the Ministry is to protect the forests, she said, "true economic development can only be people oriented environmentally sustainable development."

The Minister's statement came after several news reports have suggested that one of the main reasons for the failure of the power grids and for any problems in power generation is the lack of environment clearance to power projects.