Greenpeace India Demands Veerappa Moily's Resignation

BeyondHeadlines News Desk

New Delhi : Greenpeace India has demanded Veerappa Moily’s resignation as Evnironment Minister for failing to uphold the interest of environment in speedy clearances to 70 projects in 20 days. Greenpeace India has said there is a conflict of interest in Moily holding dual charge of Environment and Forests even while being the Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, and he should immediately resign as the Environment Minister.

“The very idea behind existence of the Ministry is not to give `speedy’ clearance to projects but to safeguard the environment and wildlife,” Greenpeace India Executive Director, Samit Aich said in an open letter to Moily released today.

The organisation has criticised the minister for speedy clearance of projects at a time when elections to the Lok Sabha are due in the next few months.

“With so many years of experience behind you, it is surprising that the impropriety of your decisions, particularly its timing does not strike you as odd. Every project proposal that goes for environmental clearance has several stake holders – there are the corporates, environmental groups, and people living in the affected areas. The law requires equal opportunity to all stake holders when a project is cleared. You have given speedy clearances by ignoring all the stakeholders, except the corporates,” the letter said.

Citing the case of POSCO as an example, Greenpeace has said the Minister has cleared the file even without obtaining forest clearance.