Ramesh says BJP diluting environment, forest laws

new delhi: Accusing the Modi government of pursuing an agenda of diluting environment and forest laws by viewing it as “regulatory burdens”, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said on Saturday that BJP is sending contentious Bills to a joint committee headed by a BJP MP rather than to a Standing Committee headed by Opposition lawmakers.

Ramesh, who heads the Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change, said that the government has sent the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023 to a Joint Committee of Parliament and not to a Parliamentary Standing Committee led by opposition leaders.

The Congress Rajya Sabha chief whip, who earlier wrote to Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar against the government move, also countered Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav’s claim that Congress governments sent a large number of Bills to the Joint Committee. Sharing a short clip showing 254 such Bills from 1952 that were sent to Joint Committees, Yadav tweeted, “Jairam Ramesh says referring the Forest Conservation Amendment Bill to a Joint Committee is ‘devaluation and denigration’ of processes. (It) will serve him well to take a hard look at how many Bills introduced in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were sent by the Congress government to the Joint Committee.”

“The Congress is involved in a nefarious project to create doubts in the minds of people regarding all democratic institutions and democratic processes. They are doing this in India and also on foreign soil. This is a dangerous trend and must stop,” the minister alleged.

However, while countering Yadav, Ramesh said, “Standing Committees came into existence only on March 31 1993. Better homework was expected of you Mantri-ji.”