Meeting called by PM on environmental clearance postponed

Nksagar-Sagar Media Inc: New Delhi :
The meeting called by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today to hammer out a consensus on the grant of environmental clearances for power, coal and steel projects has been postponed. An official in the Coal Ministry informed newsmen in New Delhi today without giving any reason. Streamlining the process for granting forestry and environment clearance to enable new projects to take off quickly and fixing a maximum time limit of 150 days for such approvals were expected to be the main items on the agenda for the high-level meeting. The other issues include seeking cooperation from coal-producing states to address problems relating to land acquisition, rehabilitation and law and order.
Our correspondent reports,the Ministry of Environment and Forests is at loggerheads with the ministries of coal, power and steel over the grant of statutory environmental and forestry clearances to projects in areas situated in dense forests, which it has classified as 'no go' zones. A Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has been grappling with the tussle over 'go' and 'no-go' mining areas, as classified by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.The GoM met twice, in February and April, to try and resolve the differences between ministries, but with little success as the Environment Ministry has refused to modify its stance.The demand-supply gap for coal in the current fiscal has been estimated at 142 million tonnes by the Planning Commission. According to the Coal Ministry, the 'no go' mining policy has affected the potential production of 660 million tonnes of coal per annum.