Urban naxals had stalled work of Sardar Sarovar dam for years claiming it is bad for environment: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday alleged that urban Naxals and antidevelopment elements with political backing had stalled the construction of Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river in Gujarat for many years by running a campaign that it would harm the environmentSuch urban Naxals are still active and getting support from various institutions to stall development projects in the name of environment protection PM Modi said while urging environment ministers from different states to ensure that projects aimed at bringing ease of doing business or ease of life do not get stalled unnecessarilyHe also asked the state governments to adopt a balanced approach in granting environment clearances to counter the conspiracy of such peopleThe prime minister was addressing the environment ministers from states after virtually inaugurating the National Conference of Environment Ministers at Ekta Nagar in Narmada district of Gujarat via video conferenceUrban Naxals and antidevelopment elements having political backing had stalled the construction of the Sardar Sarovar dam by running a campaign that the project will harm the environment Huge amount of money was wasted due to this delay Now when the dam is complete you can very well judge how dubious their claims were he saidPM Modi added that contrary to the claims that the project would harm the environment the area surrounding the dam has now become a teerth kshetra or place of pilgrimage for environment loversAlso Read Develop areas close to Kedarnath Badrinath PM Narendra ModiHe was referring to the famous Statue of Unity and many iconic tourist attractions such as jungle safari valley of flowers and many gardens that came up near the 182metre tall monumentUrban Naxal term is often used by some segments of the political spectrum to describe sympathisers of the Naxalism cause as well as certain social activistsLast month Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel had also alleged that urban Naxals had opposed the Sardar Sarovar dam to deprive the state and arid Kutch region of water and development He had labelled activist and Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar as an urban NaxalCautioning the ministers PM Modi said that urban Naxals are still active and get support from various institutions as well as political parties to stall developmental projects in the name of environment protectionThese people stall projects by influencing even the judiciary and the World Bank I urge you to make sure that projects aimed at bringing ease of doing business or ease of life do not get unnecessarily stalled in the name of the environment he saidThe states should adopt a balanced approach in granting environment clearance to counter the conspiracy of such people the prime minister addedExpressing displeasure over the unnecessary delay in the issuance of environmental clearances for various projects Modi said development will pick up pace only when these clearances are given quickly which should be done without any compromiseNearly 6000 applications for environmental clearance and nearly 6500 for forest clearance are still pending in different states As you all know such pendency escalates project cost All of us need to try to reduce this pendency Only genuine ones should be kept pending PM Modi saidHe said that granting speedy environment clearance will prove to be a winwin situation for both economy and environmentThe prime minister gave an example of the recentlybuilt Pragati Maidan tunnel in Delhi aimed at easing the traffic flow By using this tunnel vehicles are saving nearly 55 lakh litres of fuel every year he addedThis resulted in reduction of 13000 tonnes of carbon emission We would have needed six lakh trees to absorb this much carbon Flyovers roads and railway projects help in reducing carbon emission Do not ignore this angle while granting environment clearances he saidOn the occasion the PM made a pitch for providing training to the forest staff strengthening the mechanism to tackle forest fires using forest waste such as dry leaves to produce industrial fuel and adopting participative and integrated approach for better resultsHe also urged the states to start working on implementing the Centres vehicle scrappage policy by first scrapping old and unfit government vehicles so that the process beginsI also want the states to start working on the biofuel policy by using biofuel in their official vehicles as much as possible We need to own up the policies and implement them on the ground Ethanol blending in fuel will also help farmers as they will get income on their farm waste he saidPM Modi also urged states to promote circular economy which according to him would help the country in better solid waste management and eliminate singleuse plasticThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom 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