Be pragmatic,not dogmatic: Steel Minister to Jairam

Responding to queries over the holding back of the project by the Environment Ministry,in the face of majority opinion against the project of the fact-finding committee,he said that unfortunately known activists were being appointed in such committees and “what else could be expected”.

He was referring to the four-member panel comprising three activists— Uma Pingle,Devendra Pandey and V Suresh — who have opposed the Rs 54,000 crore Korean steel giant Posco’s project,proposed in Jagatsinghpur in Orissa. The project is billed as the largest FDI in India.

“ArcelorMittal and Posco (entailing greenfield steel projects for 36 million tonnes) are important projects and their (Environment Ministry’s) approach should be pragmatic”,he said.

Asked if he would seek Manmohan Singh’s intervention for clearances,the senior minister said “he (PM) knows about it… he is keen that Posco project takes off … Jairam Ramesh knows it”.

“I am very much concerned at the delay (in getting clearance to Posco and other projects)…Where ever the land acquisition and environment clearance is concerned the projects are piling up,” he said,attributing the delays to the opposition by activists-led environment ministry panel.

“What I feel is that the ministry has constituted several panels comprising activists who have their own agenda.

“In the matter of Posco this is what has happened. I feel they are going beyond their mandate as members and their views are being coloured by the activism,” he said.

Singh said that “there should be the people who should have broader perspective. Activists have a very limited view and they impose their views on everybody.”

For reviewing various projects,Ramesh hand-picked Suresh and Pingle who are said to be long-time campaigners on tribal rights.

“When there is an issue of development compromises have to be made,” he said asserting that in important projects like highways and mining compensatory measures such as afforestation can be taken to minimise the ecological loss.