Lt. Governor Flags Environmental Issues of Andaman And Nicobar Islands in National Conference
Port Blair, Apt 06: Lt. Governor, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Lt. General (Retd) AK Singh attended the Conference of State Environment and Forest Ministers held on 6th April 2015 at New Delhi. The Conference was inaugurated by Shri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India. Shri Prakash Javadekar, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment, Forest and Climate Change participated as Guest of Honour. State Ministers holding the charge of Environment and Forest and Chairpersons/Member Secretaries of State Pollution Control Board and Senior Officers of Central Ministries/States/UTs participated in this well attended Conference.
During the inaugural session, the Prime Minister released a status report on air pollution status of various cities/towns in the country. Inaugurating the Conference, Prime Minister viewed that development and environment cannot be viewed as separate entities. While the genuine aspiration of the citizens of the country are to be met by providing all-inclusive development, care should be taken that environment is not spoiled. He cited with illustration the environment consciousness of the forefathers and called upon all the stakeholders to emulate the model given by them in achieving a pollution free atmosphere. He illustrated that turning off street lights on full moon nights, avoiding of use of fuel driven vehicles once in a week would reduce carbon emission drastically and wherever feasible, renewable energy should be encouraged.
Lt. Governor, A&N islands briefed the Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change about the recent initiatives taken by the Administration in managing the Municipal solid waste, e-waste, plastic waste and biomedical waste. Lt. Governor appreciated the very fine efforts taken by the Forest Department of the Administration in preserving ecology of the Islands. He requested the intervention of the Ministry to sort out the issue of extraction of sea sand to the extent allowed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court, by expediting the report by the Institute of Ocean Management, Chennai, so that the need of the Islanders for allotment of sea sand could be fulfilled.
Lt. Governor sought for the support of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in getting a favourable recommendation by the Central Empowered Committee constituted by Supreme Court, for diversion of 16000 hectares of deemed forest land for the purposes of taking up of developmental projects for housing, Civil Aviation etc. apart from meeting the infrastructural needs of Defence.
Further in order to prevent the time and cost overrun in respect of the projects requiring clearance under the Forest Act, the Lt. Governor requested the Ministry either to authorize one of the PCCFs posted to Andaman and Nicobar Islands to accord such clearances on behalf of the Central Government or to direct the officials of Chennai Regional Office of the Ministry to periodically, say once in 2 months, visit Port Blair to expedite the pending clearances.
The Union Minister appreciated the initiative taken by the Administration and assured that his Ministry would render all assistance in meeting the requirements of the Islanders.
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