Chidambaram reportedly said that if Chaturvedi committee report was accepted it will lead to huge environmental degradation after Natarajan had made a 20-minute presentation on why his report was bad for Indian forests.
Chidambaram had earlier opposed former environment minister Jairam Ramesh at the earlier GoM meeting but on Tuesday found substance in Natarajan's presentation, who was willing to accept some changes in the environment policy without adverse impact on forests.
After a hour long meeting, the GoM deferred its decision on the report because of the differences.
Chaturvedi wanted the GoM to consider nine policy issues including scrapping of go-no go policy in forest areas for coal mining, remove condition of quorum for seeking gram sabha's consent for projects, allow 25% expansion of existing projects without public hearing and further delegation of forest approval powers to the state government. Read the full report here.
Source: Chetan Chauhan, Hindustan Times, New Delhi.
