Policy to reflect commitment to clean environ

CHENNAI: The proposed National Environment Policy, 2006 would reflect the country's commitment to create a clean environment as mandated in the Constitution, Union Minister for Environment and Forests A Raja said on Wednesday.

The policy would seek to forge synergy between environmental and economic policies, and appropriate institutional mechanisms, which would integrate economic and social developments and environmental protection, Raja said, while inaugurating the 32nd All India Sociological Conference organised by the University of Madras and the Indian Sociological Society.

"Based on our experience and understanding, we know that sustainable development cannot be pursued in isolation. Thus, the policy is expected to bring in new models of partnerships between the government and the society, such as public-community and public-private partnerships," Raja said.

These new partnerships have to be established while ensuring equitable distribution of technology and social development, he said.

Promotion of these partnerships requires optimal use of the diverse repertoire of knowledge, skills, perceptions and of assets of different nations and societies, Raja said.

P K B Nayar, President, Indian Sociological Society, said that in India sociology was struggling to find an identity as a discipline, mainly due to the irrelevance of the syllabi to the society and lack of standard text books.

Commercial and government agencies and NGOs are being forced to rely on reports published by media on sociology, rather than research projects conducted by students, because of this irrelevance, he said.