But for greens, Jairam Ramesh was an "activist minister" who tried hard to put environment back into the public consciousness. Ramesh was shifted from the environment and forests ministry to rural development department on Tuesday.
The 57-year-old IIT-Bombay alumni was always willing to go an extra mile to protect country's natural resources by introducing innovative ideas and legal instruments to strengthen the depleting natural resources. "Jairam was one of the fastest learning environment minsters I have ever seen. He changed the profile and the power play of the ministry, which was virtually dysfunctional for a decade and half,'' editor of Sanctuary magazine Bittu Sahgal said.
Jairam's golden moments came when his ministry sent notices to Adarsh housing society in which many of his senior colleagues from the Congress were involved or took on the 12,000-acre Lavasa township. He took up green issues head-on, be it illegal mining in the state or permission for noisy helipads. Read the full report here.
Source: Viju B, TNN, Mumbai.
