Giving green nod to defence, public sector projects a priority: Prakash Javadekar

PUNE: Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar has said that clearing defence projects will be the top priority of his ministry while the projects of individual companies will be considered at a later stage.

"There are about 5,000 projects which are waiting for environmental clearance. We are giving high priority to projects which have tremendous public welfare aspects. We will take up other individual projects later," Javadekar said in Pune on Sunday, on his first visit to his home town since taking charge of the ministry.

The minister added, "Border roads, missile development projects, Navy’s ports have been stalled for want of environmental clearance. Security of the environment and of the country, both are important."

Poverty is the biggest enemy of environment and development is necessary for abolition of poverty, he said.

Talking about the controversy and the subsequent law and order problem over the objectionable content on Facebook about Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and late Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, Javadekar said his ministry would not try to curb the freedom of social media. Javadekar holds the portfolios of information and broadcasting, and parliamentary affairs, in addition to environment.

The functioning of the Narendra Modi-led government will be much different from the previous United Progressive Alliance government, Javadekar said, adding that Prime Minister Modi had instructed his team of ministers to speed up the work.

"We have changed the system. We (ministers) have no ego. It is very flexible. Two ministers meet and the work gets going," he said, talking about the government’s decision to scrap the EGoM and GoMs. Giving an example of his meeting with the energy minister Piyush Goyal, he said, "When the energy minister said that many of his department’s projects are pending for environmental clearance, we held a meeting for two hours and made a time bound plan."

Javadekar said he started online submission of applications in environment ministry right on his first day after taking charge. "We are improving the processes and bringing transparency in them," he said.

The prime minister has asked all ministers to give presentations about their plans for the respective ministries, Javadekar said. "He (Modi) has asked us to think innovative. For example, forests are not a financial liability. They can earn us lakhs of crores of rupees if we rejuvenate them. We will explore such new ideas," he said.

Although the interlinking of rivers comes under the ministry headed by Uma Bharti, Javadekar said that the government’s priority would be to first link the rivers in the same river basin.