MoEF continues campaign against NIB, to take up issue in cabinet

The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has continued its campaign over the the role of the proposed 'super' clearance agency, the National Investment Board (NIB), and  is preparing a note for the cabinet to put forth its views.

Jayanthi Natarajan, minister for environment and forests, said in New Delhi yesterday that whatever she had to say, she would say in cabinet. It was a matter that needed to be discussed. She said she had written to the prime minister.

Natarajan said her ministry would protect the interests of the environment.

The ministry obviously is miffed with the NIB proposed by finance minister P Chidambaram to fast-track clearances for large infrastructure projects, which is being seen as an infringement of the MoEF's mandate and working.

In her letter to the prime minister on 9 October, Natarajan had said the ''urgency with which such sweeping changes in the 'rules of transaction of business' are sought to be made, that too not by DoPT, which is under you, but by the ministry of finance, which is not the nodal ministry in this case, is both surprising and disturbing.''

While agreeing that the need existed to ''greatly improve the process of clearances'', she said the MOEF had identified a ''clear road-map and timeline for implementation'' of the system.