Fear psychosis responsible for delays in green nod: Veerappa Moily

NEW DELHI: The delays in green nod for projects, partly blamed for the economic slowdown, were today attributed by Environment Minister M Veerappa Moily to "fear psychosis" among bureaucrats and his predecessors.

Moily, the Oil and Petroleum Minister who took additional charge of the ministry three weeks back, suggested that clearances are affected because rules are complicated and the competent authority has discretionary powers.

"You can't blame anybody. The environment is such that there is a fear psychosis, particularly after 2009 created because of the CAG reports, court verdicts, court proceedings. There are issues like the National Green Tribunal, CBI inquiry. Not only on this (environment) thing, but all matters," he told PTI in an interview here.

He said ministers and officers "think that we have to be extra cautious. The extra caution sometimes leads to the delays in the process. So can't blame anybody, neither the ministers or the..."

He was explaining reasons for delays in environmental clearances to projects, many of them big-ticket ones, during the tenure of Jayanthi Natarajan from whom he took over.

The industry had been complaining that the delays in green clearances were hindering their projects and thus hurting the economic growth and it is believed that Natarajan lost her job because of that.