‘Go’, ‘No-Go’ Has No Legal Basis: Environment Minister

This is a significant departure from the stand advocated by her predecessor Jairam Ramesh, namely that allowing coal mining in forest areas would “defeat the spirit" of the FCA.

Natarajan, however, told the GoM, chaired by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, that the environment minister cannot grant blanket permission for “diversion of forest land for non-forest purpose".

The GoM has been set up to study the ‘go', ‘no-go' classification that has been criticised by the coal, steel and power ministries and to resolve issues related to the mining of coal. Read the full report here.

Source: Priyadarshi Siddhanta, Indian Express, New Delhi.