The state will aggressively campaign for the Jaitapur nuclear power project facing protest from a couple of NGOs.
Both parties (Congress and NCP) have decided to win over the local people by taking up their cause against 49 mining projects that are detrimental to the environment in the ecologically sensitive western ghats.
Union minister for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh has been flooded with complaints by local politicians and activists against the mining projects. The state government has temporarily stayed all the 49 mining projects along the coastal Konkan region.
“The government should review all the mining projects to ascertain the effect on the environment in the region,” a senior cabinet minister said. “We should also have a policy with clear guidelines to avoid controversies in the future.”
The government is in a quandary because it had earlier approved all the mining projects in principle. A senior Congress leader said that the party was confident of winning over the people by explaining the significance of the nuclear power project. “But we have to scrap the mining projects,” he said.
Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan who is working with Ramesh is unlikely to take any decision without taking the local people into confidence. Chavan is confident of getting the Jaitapur nuclear project okayed but he has reservations about the mining projects.
NCP spokesperson Prakash Bhinsale said that the mining and the nuclear projects had to be treated separately. “The nuclear project poses no threat to the environment and it will transform the face of Konkan,” he said. “The real issue is the rehabilitation package for the farmers whose land would be acquired for the Jaitapur project. The government has already assured adequate compensation.”
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