Define carefully, ‘no go’ areas don’t have to be so for ever: Montek Singh Ahluwalia

NEW DELHI: The Planning Commission has called for a careful delimitation of areas where coal mining is going to be totally prohibited, or the so called ‘no go’ areas.

The demand for clarity comes amid concerns from both mining companies and the coal ministry that overzealous environment protection policies may hamper economic and industrial development. “The criteria that we use to establish what is ‘no-go’ should be very carefully defined and should be based on some scientific considerations,” Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said on Wednesday.

The Forest and Environment Ministry had decided to categorise forest and other land into ‘no-go’ (Category A) and ‘go’ (Category B) lands, citing environmental concerns. Mining is totally prohibited in ‘no go’ areas and even in the category B areas projects will have to go through due environmental and forest clearance.

“If we get a sensible definition of what is ‘no-go’... something that is called ‘nogo’ for now does not have to be ‘no-go’ for ever,” said Ahluwalia on the sidelines of public private partnership (PPP) conclave.

Ahluwalia said that said he had taken up the issue with Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh and “he is quite willing to be flexible in what the criteria should be.”

The coal ministry has also raised concerns over ‘go’ and ‘no go’ areas and has moved a cabinet proposal that only the dense forest, which is only 10% of the total area, should be kept out of bounds.

The coal ministry had assured that it will plant 2.5 times more trees than it cuts.