Centre assured not to implement Kasturirangan notification till new panel submits report: CM Bommai
New Delhi, Jul 25: The Centre has assured that it will not implement the notification on Kasturirangan report on declaring eco-sensitive zones in Western Ghats until the recently set up committee to address the concerns of states submits its report, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Monday.
The chief minister led a delegation of state leaders, including ministers and MPs, from Malnad region to apprise Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav of their concern over the draft notification declaring 20,668 sq km of the Western Ghats as eco-sensitive area in Karnataka.
Union Minister of State for Agriculture Shobha Karandlaje, Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra, Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, Shimoga MP B Y Raghavendra, Kodagu-Mysuru MP Pratap Simha, BJP national general secretary C T Ravi and others were part of the delegation.
Briefing media after the hour-long meeting, Bommai said, "We shared our views about Kasturirangan report... The basic objection we put forth was that the report was prepared without undertaking any ground survey and without taking opinion of gram panchayats."
The Kasturirangan Committee has declared eco-sensitive areas in Western Ghats without distinguishing the cultural and natural landscape, he alleged, adding that besides Karnataka, Kerala and other states too have similar objections.
Environment Minister Bhupender Yada, in the meeting, said a new panel has been set up to examine the suggestions of the states and that it will visit each state to take local people's opinion, he said.
The Union minister also said that the committee will study in detail and submit a report. He also assured that "till such time, the notification will not be implemented," the Karnataka chief minister told media.
On April 16, Union environment ministry had set up a committee headed by retired IFS officer Sanjay Kumar to examine the concerns of Karnataka, Kerala, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat in respect of declaration of ecological sensitive areas in Western Ghats region.
Bommai also mentioned that a high-level state committee will be set up on the terms of reference of the central committee to assist the latter during its visit to the state.
The Kasturirangan report was "very unscientific", Bommai said and added the state will take measures to ensure the report prepared by the new central committee is scientific.
Last week, the state cabinet opposed the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests draft notification declaring 20,668 sq km of the Western Ghats as eco-sensitive area as per the recommendation of Kasturirangan Committee and urged the Centre to withdraw the notification.
The ministry had recently issued a draft notification announcing 46,832 sq km as eco-sensitive area in five states along the Western Ghats as per the recommendation of the Kasturirangan Committee.
Of these, Karnataka has the highest area (20,668 sq km). All states concerned have been given three months to file objections.
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Sheikh Hasina should be allowed to stay in India as long as she wants: Mani Shankar Aiyar
Kolkata (PTI): Former career diplomat, ex-union minister and Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar said that deposed Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina should be allowed to stay in India as long as she wants.
Expressing happiness that Indian foreign secretary Vikram Misri went to Dhaka last month and held discussions with the authorities there, Aiyar told PTI on the sidelines of the 16th Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival that the talks should be continuous and New Delhi needs to establish ministerial contacts with the interim government of Bangladesh.
About demands by Bangladesh to extradite Hasina, he said, "I hope we will never disagree that Sheikh Hasina has done a lot of good for us. I am glad she was given refuge. I think we should be her host as long as she wants, even if it is for all her life."
Hasina, 77, has been living in India since August 5 when she fled Bangladesh following a massive student-led protest that toppled her 16-year regime.
The Congress leader said that it is true that minority Hindus in Bangladesh are being attacked, but mostly it is because they are supporters of Hasina.
“They (reports about attacks on Hindus) are true but exaggerated because many of the conflicts are more about settlement of political differences," he said on Saturday.
Earlier during a question hour session, Aiyar said that Pakistanis are much like Indians, but only the accident of partition made them a different country.
“There exists much more difference in me as a Tamil and my wife as a Punjabi, than between her and a Pakistani Punjabi,” he said.
Taking a jibe at the Narendra Modi regime, the Congress leader claimed, “We have the courage to undertake surgical strike but this government does not have the courage to sit across the table with them."
Pakistan is a country which "spreads terror but it is also a victim of terror', Aiyar said.
"They (Pakistan) thought they could bring Taliban to power in Afghanistan, (but) today their single biggest threat is the Taliban in Afghanistan," he said.
In a compliment to former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Aiyar said his single biggest achievement was to ensure that India talked to Pakistan on the back channel on what Gen Musharraf called the four-point agreement on Kashmir.
Singh also showed that it is possible to talk business with a military government, he said.
"It is suicidal for us to continue wearing Pakistan around our neck like the albatross. We should just talk to them as Manmohan Singh showed on the issue of Kashmir,” he said.
Aiyar took part in a discussion on his recent book where he touched on issues like his relation with the Gandhi family, his tryst with the Congress party, his stint in the days at Cambridge and his commentary on the present situation in the country.
