New Delhi, Aug 22:  Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said Monday that his ministry is drafting a bill for redressing public grievances at the grassroots based on the experience of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

Ramesh told reporters that the bill on grievance redressal at the village level was being drafted drawing on the experience of similar mechanism in MGNREGA. He said the draft bill is expected to be put in public domain by the end of this week.

Ramesh said the proposed legislation will compliment moves by the government to bring in greater accountabilty in public institutions through the Lokpal bill, whistleblowers protection bill and judicical accountability bill.(IANS)

Things are just not going well for Anil Agarwal's Vedanta Resources. After a long wait, Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has finally rejected the company's mining lease due to environment clearance.

He has also refused to give the company approval for the six-fold expansion of its refiner. This means that the all of the 11 projects of Vedanta, some ongoing and some in the initial stages, have been stalled. This projects are now officially illegal.

Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh announced that it was not possible to put a complete ban on use of plastics in India as it would have effect on the huge employment provided by the industry.

Jairam Ramesh, Environment minister, has put freeze on the commercial cultivation of BT Brinjal which is in contrary to what Union Science and Technology Minister Prithviraj Chavan has stated in his existing research that Bt Brinjal was safe for use.

Chavan is a scientist and also insisted on the setting up of a bio-safety standards regulatory authority. The Indian Government is on the edge of setting up of the National Bio-Technology Regulatory Authority.

While addressing a press conference in New Delhi Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh announced the decision of imposing an open end moratorium on the release of the transgenic brinjal hybrid developed by Mahyco, a subsidiary of global seed giant Monsanto.

Union minister for Environment and forest, Mr. Jairam Ramesh has planned to set a panel in order to enhance the scientific capacity of his ministry. The panel will be lead by former chief K .Kastuirangan and the names of the panel members will be announced on Thursday. Before setting the panel a network of scientists has already been launched by Mr. Ramesh.

Mr. Jairam Ramesh informed that the Environment Ministry was established in the year 1980 by the then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi, which was conceived as a scientific ministry but the ministry lost it focus over the science as the time passed.

17 of the 38 project tiger reserves in the country are in very bad shape and if the situation persists, the condition of these tiger reserves could be next Sariska (Rajasthan) and Panna in Madhya Pradesh where all tigers have become extinct, said Union Minister for Forests and Environment Jairam Ramesh.

New Delhi, Jan 8 : Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh met Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal here on Thursday amidst concerns over global warming and carbon emission.

New Delhi, Jan 4 : The Planning Commission is setting up an expert group to recommend how India can move towards a low carbon economy. The announcement is expected Tuesday, Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said here Monday.

To be led jointly by eminent economist Kirit Parikh and former UN under secretary general Nitin Desai, the group will prepare a roadmap by which India can reduce its carbon dioxide emissions without affecting the growth of the economy.

Varanasi, Dec 31 : The lack of success of the ''Ganga Action Plan'' in over two decades, has prompted Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh to announce the novel ''Mission Clean Ganga'' project here on Wednesday.

Ramesh said that under the new plan the government would ensure that no pollutants are released into the river without treatment.

It has been decided that by 2020 any municipal sewage or the industry effluent won''t be released in Ganga without proper treatment, he added.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday accepted India deviated from its original stand on international verification of emission mitigation actions but said, “It will not affect India’s sovereignty”.
By signing the Copenhagen Accord, India has agreed to “international consultations” and “analysis” of its domestic mitigation efforts.
“We allowed it but did not accept review, scrutiny and verification asked by (US President Barack) Obama. We suggested consultation and analysis to which he agreed,” Ramesh said.

New Delhi, Dec 22 : Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh borrowed a leaf from Hindu mythology while defending the government's stand at the Copenhagen climate summit, saying like "(some) gods have three feet", India was with the G-77, the BASIC group and the industrialised nations.

"We're in the G77 and in the BASIC group and in talks with industrialised countries. Many of our gods have three feet. We should do the same," Ramesh quipped at a press conference when asked to comment on reported unhappiness among members of the Group of 77 countries at India's stand in Copenhagen.

New Delhi, Dec. 22 : Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday said that the climate change accord presented in Copenhagen was not legally binding.

The agreement between U. S and BASIC countries in Copenhagen has been described as an Accord, which is a "non-legally binding agreement" and was arrived at during time for curbing climate change.

Previously, during the Heads of State meet both India and China objected to certain alleged insertion of clauses into the proposed draft.

New Delhi, Dec 22 : "I had gone to Copenhagen not to save the world but to protect India's right to development," Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh declared Tuesday.

Summing up his experiences at the Dec 7-19 climate summit in the Danish capital, Ramesh said India had ensured there was "no limit on development. We were afraid of this. There had been talk of 2025 being a peaking year for developing country emissions. We have removed the danger for now".

New Delhi, Dec 22 : India "does not require" international aid to fight climate change and is capable of standing "on our feet", Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said Tuesday in the Rajya Sabha.

Countering Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley's charge that India was not on the radar of the $100 billion a year fund that would be mobilised by 2020 to assist developing countries bring down their emission levels, the minister said categorically: "We don't want international aid. We can stand on our feet."

New Delhi, Dec 22 : India stands by the Copenhagen Accord which contains provisions to ensure that the country's national interests are protected, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said in the Rajya Sabha Tuesday.

He rebutted arguments that the Copenhagen Accord has sounded the death knell of the Kyoto Protocol.

The minister made the assertion while replying to a discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the Copenhagen Accord.

New Delhi, Dec 22 - India has not only protected but enhanced its interests at the Copenhagen climate summit, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said here Tuesday.

Making a statement in parliament on the outcome of the Dec 7-19 summit, Ramesh said that India had repeatedly ensured that there was no possibility of any infringement of national sovereignty.

The other big achievement at the climate summit, Ramesh told the Rajya Sabha, was the close coordination between Brazil, South Africa, India and China -- the so-called BASIC countries -- at the negotiations. (IANS)

New Delhi, Dec 22 : Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh will on Tuesday make a statement in the Rajya Sabha on the Copenhagen Accord.

The Copenhagen Summit has been described as an accord, a non-binding agreement that was arrived at the very last minute by a small group of countries to fight climate change. Both India and China walked out of the summit and this has exposed a failure of leadership when faced with a great global challenge.

India’s consent to the final accord on climate hammered out at the Copenhagen meet goes against the assurance Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had given Parliament before his departure, said CPM leader Sitaram Yechury.

Copenhagen, Dec. 19 : Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has said that no final deal on climate change has been reached by all 193 members here.

"The deal has not been done, but the draft has been negotiated. It will now go to plenary. Only then it could be approved by others," said Ramesh.

"The U. S. President had an hour long meet with BASIC group. It was a productive meet. We had heart-to-heart chat and looked into each other's draft and proposals," he added further.