The MoEF, which usually holds its meetings in New Delhi, for the first time held the Western Ghats Natural Management Committee meeting in Bangalore on Thursday, in an attempt to permeate through the State bureaucracy, especially after Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda did not respond to Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jayanthi Natarajan's letter dated September 6.
Cold-shouldered
Her predecessor (Jairam Ramesh) too had written to then chief minister B S Yeddyurappa on June 20Â - only to be cold-shouldered.
Jagadish Kishwan, Additional Director General of Forests (Wildlife), MoEF, who chaired the meeting, told Deccan Herald that after tapping into the Forest department officials, MoEF would make efforts to arrange for a dialogue between the State Forest Minister and Jayanthi Natarajan.
“The reason for Karnataka's strong reaction must be the lack of information. Efforts were made by Union ministers to communicate with the State ministers, which unfortunately did not yield any positive results. The objective of holding the meeting in Bangalore is to address this issue at the bureaucratic level first. The idea is to create a platform for the State and Union ministers to hold a dialogue in the days to come," said Kishwan. Read the full report here.
Source: Ashwini Y S, Deccan Herald, Bangalore.
