Faster green clearance on the anvil

NEW DELHI: The coal and the environment ministries have brought out a six-point agenda to make the process of forest and environment clearances faster for various mining projects in the country. The move would facilitate firms like CIL to meet their production quota on time.

���In a meeting with the environment minister, it was decided to expedite the process of environment and forest clearances for our projects so that we can reach targeted production levels on time,��� said coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal in a joint press conference of environment and coal ministries. Mr Jaiswal, along with coal secretary C Balakrishnan and Coal India chairman PS Bhattacharyya, called upon the environment minister Jairam Ramesh and came out with this six-points of action plan on getting faster clearances.

As per the plan, the forest ministry has agreed to give away 60% of the total forest cover in ���degraded forest areas,��� for mining and has termed it as ���Go��� areas. No mining would be allowed in the medium and dense forest lands which is termed as ���No-Go��� areas.

Mr Ramesh said, ���We will allow mining only in the ���Go��� areas. The approvals should take one year. Our coal production should double to 1 billion tonne in the next seven years.���