It’s ‘Paryavaran ka jhanda’ over ‘Devpt ka agenda’ for Modi govt

GANDHINAGAR: The Narendra Modi-led Union government has rejected Gujarat's demand to lift the moratorium on some of the country's critically polluted industrial clusters — Ankleshwar, Vatva (Ahmedabad) and Vapi. The state government has been lobbying hard to reverse the decision made by the UPA regime in 2010.

A moratorium means no new industries can come up in these clusters. It also imposes a blanket ban on existing industries from expanding operations or effecting any change in their product portfolio.

Gujarat Pollution Control Board chairman K U Mistry, also an ex-officio member of CPCB, said, "Despite the change of guard in Delhi, the bureaucracy remains insensitive to Gujarat. Yamuna is worse than Gujarat but there is no moratorium in Delhi."

Ironically, Modi as chief minister of Gujarat had constantly requested the UPA-led government to lift the moratorium. After Modi become PM, unit-owners in these clusters expected some relaxation given the industry-friendly image of NDA.

Gujarat government was prompt to write to the Centre on this issue soon after Modi took over as PM. "The NDA government will strike a balance between 'Development ka agenda' and 'Paryavaran ka jhanda'," Union environment minister Prakash Javdekar had said during his visit to Ahmedabad in July 2014.

P K Taneja, additional chief secretary, forests & environment, Gujarat, said, "The ministry of environment & forests has not accepted our request to lift the moratorium on technical grounds. It is not convinced with the GPCB report and doesn't approve of certain relaxations proposed by the state board."

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