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Jubilation in Rajasthan over coal block clearance

Special Correspondent

— Photo: Rohit Jain Paras

Union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh with Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in Jaipur.

JAIPUR: Rajasthan, one of the two beneficiary States of the decision to clear the Hasdeo-Arand blocks in Chhattisgarh for coal mining, is ecstatic about the big break which came after 18 months of pursuance and persuasion on the part of the Congress Government in the State. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot called the media on Friday to share the good news of the “major breakthrough” which will facilitate at least three major power projects, all based on super critical thermal power generation technology, to come up in the State.

Union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh, who is taking much interest in Rajasthan's parks and environment projects, too joined the occasion here. His ministry's decision clears Parsa East and Kante Basan, allocated to Rajasthan back in 2007, for the State, while Chhattisgarh gets the Tara block, also part of the Hasdeo-Arand forests.

“The first coal block allocated to us after this government coming to power happened to be in the ‘no-go' zone and three of our major projects got held up by this. The State's whole planning process had been hinging on the enhancement of power generation capacity, as in the previous Budget we had set aside 52 per cent of the allocations for the same,” Mr. Gehlot said.

“We could appreciate Mr. Ramesh's earlier stand. In fact, it was his commitment to the cause of environment which created problems for us,” Mr. Gehlot said in a lighter vein pointing at the Union Minister. “The Chief Minister and the Energy Minister were angry with me, and now their once long faces are sporting a smile,” Mr. Ramesh joined in.

“It took me 18 months and lot of mind-boggling deliberations. I rejected it three times in the past and even day before yesterday [on Wednesday] the Forest Advisory Committee asked me to reject the proposals finally. But yesterday [Thursday] I decided to clear them for five reasons….. Hasdeo-Arand is a fine forest, which is also an elephant habitat. I have cleared it now looking into the development needs of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. There is no politics here as one is a Congress-ruled State while the other is not. I have to keep a balance between environment protection and issues of development such as power generation. I appreciate what Rajasthan is doing on the power generation front. It is one State that has achieved so much capacity addition in power with alternative energy sources as well. ”

Mr. Ramesh noted that the super critical thermal power plants had 6 per cent to 8 per cent less carbon emission. As such the coal blocks now cleared are not the main Hasdeo-Arand. There is a ridge dividing the two areas. “The fringe mining will not have an adverse impact on the forest area.” The Minister was also emphatic that clearing of these three blocks did not mean that more areas would be open for mining. He said another factor which influenced his decision was the concerned States re-working their original mining proposals.

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