Rewrite to bypass environmental safeguards: Congress on Nicobar's corals 'disappearing' on maps
New Delhi (PTI): The Congress slammed the Centre on Friday over a media report claiming that official maps of the Great Nicobar island have been airbrushed to remove corals from the map, and said this is not an ecological update but a bureaucratic rewrite to bypass environmental safeguards.
The opposition party also alleged that when reality stands in the way of corporate ambition, the Narendra Modi government simply redraws it.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh shared on X a media report, which claimed that between 2020 and 2021, corals vanished from the maps of the Great Nicobar island's coastline, while vital green zones were dramatically reduced in size.
"Another day, another revelation of how the Modi government has bulldozed the Great Nicobar Mega Infra Project through due process. Now we learn that official maps of the island have been airbrushed to remove corals from the map," the former environment minister said on X.
In the 2020 map of Great Nicobar, the island's southern and western coast -- including Galathea Bay, where a proposed international container transshipment terminal is coming up -- were marked as having extensive coral reefs, he said.
"By 2021, the revised government map moved these reefs mid-sea where it is biologically impossible for coral reefs to exist. But the shift in the reef's location on the map conveniently paved the way for the mega-project," Ramesh claimed.
In 2020, the maps showed nearly the entire island as CRZ-IA, he said, adding that this means that the construction of ports is entirely prohibited there.
The 2021 map "magically" no longer shows Galathea Bay as falling under CRZ-IA, the Congress leader said.
This "re-categorisation" allows the development of the area for the project, he added.
"This is not an ecological update, but a bureaucratic rewrite to bypass environmental safeguards. When reality stands in the way of corporate ambition, the Modi government simply redraws it," Ramesh said.
In an article in "The Hindu", Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi had termed the Rs-72,000 crore Great Nicobar Mega Infra Project a "planned misadventure" that threatens the survival of the Shompen and Nicobarese tribes, destroys one of the world's most unique ecosystems and is highly susceptible to natural disasters.
Gandhi had alleged that the project was being pushed through by "making a mockery of all legal and deliberative processes".
In response, Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav had written a column in the same newspaper, defending the project as one of strategic, defence and national importance.
He had said the plan is designed to transform Great Nicobar into a major hub of maritime and air connectivity in the Indian Ocean Region, with an international container transhipment terminal, a greenfield international airport, a 450-MVA gas- and solar-based power plant and a township over 16 sq. km.
Ramesh has slammed the project as an "ecological disaster" being "bulldozed" by the Modi government.
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Mangaluru woman loses Rs 19 lakh in cyber fraud; CEN Crime Police file case
Mangaluru: A 37-year-old woman is reported to have lost Rs 19.06 lakh in an incident of online fraud, where she downloaded a mobile phone application and invested money through it for two years.
Mangaluru CEN Crime Police have filed a case and are investigating the matter.
The woman, on receiving a message with an advertisement for investment opportunities, is said to have searched for the website and downloaded an APK file from there. She registered through the application and provided details related to her bank account. The application reportedly provided her with details about various companies, which prompted her to invest her money.
The application is learned to have asked for Rs 1 lakh as minimum investment, but did not set a maximum limit of investment. The woman went by the rules and investment up to Rs 19.06 lakh in phases, starting January 2024.
As she received partial returns of maximum Rs 1 lakh till January this year, the woman trusted the application further, as regards investment. Later, however, she reportedly found her bank account to be blocked.
On enquiring with the bank, she realized that she had been duped of her money and approached Mangaluru CEN Crime Police, who registered a case based on her complaint and are probing the incident.
