Congress slams Centre for delay in ‘ESA’ tag to protect Western Ghats

New Delhi: The Congress has accused the Centre of delaying the declaration of an ‘ecologically sensitive area’ tag for a portion of the Western Ghats and claimed that it is “directly responsible” for the human tragedy in Wayanad.

The Opposition party’s attack came after the Centre issued a fresh draft notification to declare more than 56,800 square kilometres of the Western Ghats across six states, including 13 villages in Kerala’s landslide-hit Wayanad, as an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA), inviting suggestions and objections within 60 days.

The notification, issued on July 31, came a day after a series of landslides claimed more than 300 lives in Wayanad district.

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh recalled that on August 5, 2019, during Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, he had raised the issue of the protection of the Western Ghats.

“Only on July 31, 2024, following the Wayanad catastrophe, does the Union government seem to have finally moved to declare some 57,000 square kilometres (36 per cent of the total land area of the Western Ghats) as eco-sensitive,” he said. “The delay in the ‘ecologically sensitive area’ tag has enabled rampant and careless commercialisation and is directly responsible for this human tragedy,” Ramesh said.

While an improvement on the present situation, the government’s reported decision to notify 36 per cent of the land area falls short of the 64 per cent land area protection level recommended by the Madhav Gadgil Working Group in 2011, the former environment minister said. The Union government instead appears to have adopted the recommendations of the Kasturirangan Committee, he said. This will result in future ecological disasters and threaten the livelihood and water security of the people living in these areas, Ramesh claimed. Scientists from Kerala and beyond attribute the disaster to a deadly mix of forest cover loss, mining in the fragile terrain, and climate change.

India needs a comprehensive policy solution to address the proliferation of coaching institutes, the Congress said on Saturday and called for a revision of syllabi, more resources for all exam-takers, and investments in the quality of education.

Ramesh said data provided by the Department of Higher Education to the Rajya Sabha shows that GST collections from coaching institutes have risen rapidly between 2019 and 2024, from Rs 2,241 crore to Rs 5,517 crore. This represents an astonishing 146 per cent rise in Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections, some of which may be attributable to better enforcement but also likely comes from the growing market size, he said.

His remarks came amid a focus on coaching institutes following the death of three civil service aspirants after the basement of such an institute in Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar area was flooded due to rains.

Citing government data of 2.16 lakh Indians renouncing their citizenship in 2023, the Congress said the exodus of high-skilled and high-net-worth Indians is an “economic travesty” that will shrink the country’s tax revenue base over the next few years.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said business personalities are increasingly relocating to places such as Singapore, UAE, the UK, and other locations, renouncing their Indian citizenship. In a written response to queries on Indian citizens who have renounced their citizenship, Minister of State for external affairs, Kirti Vardhan Singh recently told the Rajya Sabha that more than 2.16 lakh Indians renounced their citizenship in 2023. Ramesh said the number was almost double what it was in 2011, at 123,000. Many of these Indians who renounced their citizenship are highly skilled and educated, and their departure during a domestic skilled labour supply shortage will “extract a serious toll on our economy,” he said.

This exodus of high-skilled and high-net-worth Indians could very well be the result of opaque tax policies and arbitrary tax administration, apart from the overall climate of fear and intimidation surrounding corporate India in the past decade, the Congress leader said. In his written reply, Kirti Vardhan Singh had also shared the corresponding data for 2011-2018. The corresponding figure for 2022, 2021, 2020, and 2019 was 2.25 lakh, 1.63 lakh, 85,256, and 1.44 lakh, according to the data.

Congress Alleges Shutdown of Agro-Meteorological Units by NITI Aayog

The main Opposition party alleged that 199 district agro-meteorological units, which provided farmers at the block level with free-of-cost weather advisory services, were shut down as the NITI Aayog “misrepresented” their role to justify the decision.

Ramesh shared a media report on X which claimed that the farm weather advisory offices were closed in March this year as the NITI Aayog “misrepresented” their role and sought privatisation. Experts suggest that while the budget outlay for these units every year was around Rs 45 crore, the benefit was around Rs 15,000 crore, Ramesh pointed out. The shutdown was opposed by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and several key stakeholders, he claimed.