After Natarajan''s charge, Jaitley seeks review of UPA projects

New Delhi, January 30

Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday sought a review of environmental projects granted clearance or rejected permission during the UPA regime after former Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan accused Rahul Gandhi of interference in green clearances for projects.

Natarajan's letter to Sonia Gandhi "conclusively establishes" that it was not the statutory or mandatory considerations which weighed with the Congress but only "whims" of the leaders, the Finance Minister charged.

"I hope the Environmental ministry now will go into each of these permissions which were granted and not granted and make sure that these are expeditiously dealt with only as per law and no other consideration," Jaitley said.

The Finance Minister was reacting to Natarajan's letter to the Congress president alleging that “she had received specific requests from Rahul Gandhi on environmental clearances and consequently had rejected big ticket projects”.

Speaking to reporters, Jaitley said during UPA's regime, the growth rate was radically going down and one of the prime reasons for that was delay in approvals being granted to projects.

He said Natarajan's letter "conclusively establishes" that it was not the statutory or mandatory considerations, which weighed with the ruling party.

"But what weighed with them was the whims of political leaders of the party as to who is to be granted environmental permission and who is not to be granted an environmental permission," the Finance Minister said.

In a scenario where whims overtake legal requirements, it becomes a textbook case of "crony capitalism, which the UPA was practising," he said.

Attacking the UPA regime further, Jaitley said that it was a practitioner of a "sadistic" economy which was vindictive in nature, wanting to teach some people a lesson while wanting to favour some others.

"This obviously had to be for corrupt and collateral reasons," he charged.

Will review files Jayanthi mentioned: Javadekar               

Terming Jayanthi Natarajan's charge of specific requests on green clearances as a "serious issue", Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on Friday said he would review the files where allegations of extraneous influence have been mentioned.

"The revelations made by Jayanthi Natarajan in her letter to Sonia Gandhi, which have become public today, are a matter of great concern and is a serious issue," he said.

He said as environment minister, it is his duty to review those specific files where extraneous influence has been alleged as per the letter.

"I will definitely review those files and see what are the facts," Javadekar said.

PTI