It wasn’t me

Can a minister actually plead that an important legislation passed by his Ministry was cleared under pressure from his “more influential’’ colleagues in the Cabinet? This week, the much-awaited notification on Environment Impact Assesment (EIA) was signed by the Environment and Forests Ministry. It deals with rules on how infrastructure projects get environmental clearance in the country. The NGOs have consistently alleged it is pro-industry and that vital consultation from civil society is missing. So when CPI leader D Raja went to meet MoEF A Raja with these grievances just hours before the minister signed on the notification, the latter reportedly told him he was helpless—the real people to approach were Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, he said. Apparently, the draft notification was changed substantially outside the Ministry.

Eco for the Left

Meanwhile, the Left has finally discovered the fashionable green cause, a cause celebre with left-wingers in the rest of the world. The CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury and Forward Bloc’s Debrata Biswas have written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh warning against any move to relax the building bylaws governing the environmentally sensitive coastal and tribal/forest areas. If the PM fails to respond, the Left parties, Biswas has threatened, will take up the issue at the next UPA-Left coordination committee meeting.

Mother’s diary

Poor Varun Baba, looks like Mummy Maneka is going to blow it for him. For Maneka Gandhi has already embarked on a demolition course following the buzz that the Big Ticket from Vidisha may elude her son. She has got in touch with her long-lost friend Uma Bharati and asked her to contest from Vidisha to knock out any other BJP contestant who would dare replace Varun Gandhi. Maneka wants Bharati to give her the pleasure of teaching the party leadership a lesson. But Bharati’s workers wonder where it would leave the fiery sanyasin if Varun were to get the ticket.

... contd.