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Journalism of Courage
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh Monday proposed a new carrot-and-stick policy to urge corporates on to greener ways.
Companies that adhere to environmental standards,Jairam proposed,must be rewarded and those that dont must be penalised.
Jairam said he has already requested Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to devise such a system of incentive and penalty essentially some sort of a tax incentive to good performers. He,however,did not say whether Mukherjee agreed to the proposal.
The problem is there is no system to reward the companies that comply with environmental standards or even set new standards. We have to incentivise such behaviour, the minister told reporters after an interaction with industry representatives at FICCI. At the same time there should be penalties for those that flout environmental norms.
Mondays interaction at FICCI was the second closed-door meeting Jairam has had with industry representatives in a week. Some days ago,he held a similar dialogue with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The interactions are aimed at clearing the industrys misgivings over the Environment Ministrys recent crackdown on projects found violating green norms. Jairam plans to hold a similar meeting with industry representatives in Mumbai in the coming days.
At the meeting,corporates demanded clarity and transparency in the process of granting approvals,which should be time-bound. They also wanted the government change or modify certainnon-implementable and impracticable legal provisions to ensure better compliance.
Jairam,on his part,urged the corporates to be more considerate of the concerns of local communities living in and around the place of a project.
The two sides decided to institute a Compliance Facilitation Centre to monitor whether a company was adhering to the conditions laid down in the approval to its project.
