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The long-standing differences between Roads and Surface Transport Minister Kamal Nath and Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh came to the fore again at a Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure (CCI) meeting last Thursday, with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee finally having to step in to pacify the two.Nath objected to Ramesh "blocking" the widening and upgradation of 13 roads on the ground that environment clearance had not been taken for the proposed schemes. While the Environment Minister stuck to his ground, Nath said the clearance was not needed as these roads had been in existence for several decades and the only approval needed was for their upgradation from two-lane to four-lane.Ramesh insisted on an environmental impact assessment and said it was he and his ministry who had to face the music from courts and the empowered committee set up by the Supreme Court in case of any violations.According to sources in the Cabinet, the matters quickly escalated with Nath telling Ramesh that it was he who had mooted environment impact assessments as the Union environment minister in 1991-95. Indicating that he was well-versed with environmental laws, the Surface Transport Minister said courts or empowered committees only came into play if a proposed road cut through a national park, reserve or sanctuary.Even accusing Ramesh of "misleading" the Cabinet, Nath reportedly said that if roads were so much a threat to environment then either auto-makers should be told to stop building trucks, buses and cars, or India should stop thinking about 8 per cent annual GDP growth.According to sources, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar too joined issue with Ramesh, asking why the road to Sholapur in Maharashtra had been blocked by the Environment Ministry on the grounds that it passed through a sanctuary when that was not the case. Trying to cool tempers, Pranab Mukherjee intervened, saying that as no new road alignment was being sought, there was no reason to take a de novo clearance from the Environment Ministry.Ramesh then made an appeal to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying that the ground realities were not being understood by the others. Singh finally ruled that the Cabinet needed to consider what environmental aspects, if at all, were to be taken into account in cases where no new road alignment was being proposed.In the meantime, he said, all proposed road projects before the CCI - in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya, Orissa and Chhattisgarh - stood cleared.
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