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Gill supports Jayalalithaa's stand

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI Nov. 4. The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, today received support from the former Chief Election Commissioner, M.S. Gill, for her criticism of the recent Environment and Forests Ministry notification making it mandatory for all urban development projects worth more than Rs. 50 crores or complexes accommodating more than 1,000 people or producing 50,000 litres of effluents a day to get the Centre's clearance.

Describing the notification as "misconceived and not in the interest of the country", Mr. Gill, who has also served as the Union Agriculture Secretary, said it was sad to assume that in our country the best was done from Delhi. "It will be bad for the development and it is equally wrong to think that people in the States were not wise, nationalist or patriotic,'' he told The Hindu here today. Mr. Gill, who was on a recent 10-day trek to Uttaranchal, said that during his interaction with the local people there, he had realised that centralisation of the Forest Act had resulted in several handicaps and there was no remedy for it. Pointing out that Rs. 50 crores was very little by today's standards, Mr. Gill said that it would mean that even laying of a drain in Madurai or Moga would have to receive the Centre's clearance that would only delay the projects' implementation.

"Clearance, when it comes, will be done as a favour to the States. All the States are as responsible as the Centre and this new concept of centralisation is appalling," he said.

Calling upon the Chief Ministers of other States to oppose the move, Mr. Gill praised Ms. Jayalalithaa for looking at the matter wisely and intelligently.

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