Statue of Unity: PM Narendra Modi while addressing a two-day national conference of Environment ministers at Statue of Unity fame Ekta Nagar in Gujarat today attacked Urban Naxals who obstructed crucial Sardar Sarovar project for years. PM also said that such people also get political support and they also influence the World Bank and higher judiciary.

The PM said – “I want to discuss an important point. You know that without modern infrastructure, the nation can’t process and life can’t be easier for people. But we have seen that in the name of environment clearance, modern infrastructure creation was obstructed.

“This EKta Nagar is an eye opening example. How urban naxals, anti-development people had obstructed such a major project of Sardar Sarovar. This dam and this reservoir project was kicked off by Pandit Nehru soon after India got freedom. Sardar Patel had played a major role in it. But all urban naxals surfaced on the ground to challenge it, globally people joined that movement, they did false propaganda that this project is against the environment. The project was obstructed again and again. The project which was kicked off by Nehru ji could be completed during my tenure. A lot of money was wasted.And today the same Ektanagar has become a pilgrim place of environment. How much lies they were speaking.”

PM also said that such people (the urban naxals who obstruct infra projects) also get political support and they also influence the World Bank and higher judiciary pic.twitter.com/B06JpPZ2kl

— DeshGujarat (@DeshGujarat) September 23, 2022

“And these urban naxals are not silent even today. Their games are on even today. They were caught lying and they are not ready to accept (that they were wrong). And they also get political support from some people. In order to obstruct the development in India, many global institutions and foundations create disturbance and these urban naxals keep dancing to their tune.”

“While there should be no compromise on environmental protection, we should think in a balanced way. Conspiracy of false propaganda by such people also influences the World Bank and higher judiciary and projects are obstructed. We should go ahead with a holistic approach. It should be our effort that the ease of living and ease of doing business is not obstructed unnecessarily in the name of the environment.”

पर्यावरण के नाम पर विकास की परियोजनाओं को रोकने वाले इन शहरी नक्सलियों को पहचानने की जरूरत है। pic.twitter.com/wN5WbRkCpd

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) September 23, 2022

The PM also led the attention of ministers over the pendency of environmental and forest clearance.

He said – “Today over 6,000 works are pending for environmental clearance in your ministries. Similarly, around 6,500 projects are pending on your tables for forest clearance. If clearance is anyway going to be given in the next three months or six months then the reason is something else. We need to attempt that pendency is minimum and only in genuine cases only. We need to change our work environment also for this, when we discuss environment protection. If some project is awaiting environment clearance or forest clearance, they write letter to me and I put such issued under Pragati programme, and as soon as I put them in Pragati programme, the clearance is given. So this indicates that the pendency was not linked to environmental concerns but something else.”

DeshGujarat