Mr. Jairam Ramesh has rightly said that the job of the environment minister is to protect environment not to increase the ease of doing business. The strange part is that Mr. Ramesh held independent charge of same environment ministry between 2009 and 2011. At that time a group of affected people from the Singoli – Bhatwari and Phata – Vyung projects on the Mandakini River had approached Mr. Ramesh under the leadership of Vrindakarak. Pointing out the various violations of the loss by these projects such as disposal of muck in the river, illegal cutting of forest, tunnelling leading to loss of ground water, deteration of quality of water and illegal and fraudulently obtained no objection certificates from the Gram Pradhans, use of explosives etc. However at that time Mr. Ramesh had essentially ignored these complaints and allowed the projects to continue. This project was damaged during 2013 Kedarnath floods as shown in the picture. Today sitting in opposition he should think about his own actions at that time. But it is also true that Shri Jairam Ramesh was instrumental in the closure of three hydropower projects on Bhagirathi for which he deserves our thanks
