Strategic project or environmental disaster? Jairam Ramesh cornered the Center on the Great Nicobar Project, asked – What is the government hiding from the public?

digital desk- The Central Government’s ambitious ‘Great Nicobar Island Project’ to strengthen India’s strategic presence in the Andaman Sea and South-East Asia has once again been embroiled in major controversies. Senior Congress leader and former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has written a new letter to the current Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav raising the issue of gross lack of transparency and inadequate environmental impact assessment in this project. Earlier, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had also strongly criticized this project, calling it destructive for the environment. Jairam Ramesh in his letter termed the previous replies of Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav as ‘disappointing and unsatisfactory’. He alleged that the guidelines set by the ministry are being violated in this project. The Congress leader said that according to the rules, compliance reports should be made public every 6 months, but no such report has been issued since March 2024. Apart from this, the minutes of the Project Monitoring Committee meetings are also being uploaded after months.

Many plans related to wildlife and environment are still missing

The former environment minister claimed that conservation and mitigation plans were to be submitted within 15 days of the project getting environmental clearance in November 2022, which have not been made available to the public till date. These also include plans of Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and Salim Ali Center for Ornithology. He termed the plan to relocate coral colonies on a large scale as completely ‘unrealistic and impossible’. Jairam Ramesh asked in the letter, “Why is the government adopting so much opaqueness to hide these reports, studies and plans? Whatever I am demanding to be made public will not harm the country’s strategic interests.”

Transshipment port at Galathea Bay described as ‘ecological disaster’

Congress had also earlier this week attacked the government, saying the proposed transshipment port at Galathea Bay was ‘a recipe for ecological disaster’. In this regard, Jairam Ramesh has also written two letters to Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, in which concern has been expressed about the large-scale destruction of coral colonies.

Rahul Gandhi’s allegation – ‘The excuse of defense is a lie, preparations to build a hotel-casino’

Opposing this ambitious project, Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi has called it a battle of ‘greed versus greenery’. Rahul Gandhi alleges that the government’s argument that this project is only for defense and transshipment port is completely “false”. He claimed that in reality this extremely sensitive and irreplaceable ecological land is being given to a particular businessman to benefit him so that hotels and casinos can be built there. Rahul Gandhi has recently released a video of his Andaman visit and has also appealed to the public to sign an online petition against this project.