New Delhi, May 10 (IANS) The Congress on Sunday once again opposed the Great Nicobar Island development project, calling the compensatory afforestation argument “bogus” and seeking access to the report of a High-Powered Committee (HPC) set up by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to review the green nod to the project that entails felling of more than seven lakh trees. In a letter to the Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, former Union Minister and Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said, “In the intere…
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New Delhi, May 10 (IANS) Days after the Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the Great Nicobar island, where he underlined the grave and serious implications of the project, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Sunday penned a letter to the Union Minister for Environment and Forest Bhupendra Yadav and demanded that the project be shelved for protecting the island’s unique and distinct bio-diversity. Jairam Ramesh, Congress MP and the party’s Communications in-charge, countered ma…
New Delhi, May 1 (IANS) Dismissing environmental concerns, the Union Environment Ministry reiterated on Friday that the proposed Great Nicobar Island development project balances port-led growth with calibrated environmental safeguards and protection of indigenous communities. Sharing details of the strategic project, the Union government said it seeks to transform Great Nicobar into a strategic maritime and economic hub by leveraging its proximity (about 40 nautical miles) to the East–West sh…
New Delhi, Feb 12 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain a writ petition filed by Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh challenging the grant of ex-post facto environmental clearances (EC).In November last year, a three-judge Bench had allowed a review petition and recalled its earlier May 2025 judgment in the Vanashakti case, which had restrained the Union government from granting post-facto ECs.The review judgment had revived the 2017 notification and 2021 Office …
New Delhi, Jan 24 (IANS) The Congress on Saturday voiced concern over media reports that tribals were being pressured by the district administration to surrender their “ancestral lands” for the Rs 92,000 crore Great Nicobar island project.Former environment minister Jairam Ramesh called the reported development “an ecological disaster”.“This is unacceptable and shows how the Great Nicobar project is being bulldozed through. It is an ecological disaster,” said Ramesh, General Secretar…