Congress to the government: Suspend all approvals, have “mega infrastructure project” on the Nicobar Islands reviewed

NEW DELHI: The Congress party has demanded an immediate suspension of all approvals and conduct of a thorough, impartial audit of the central government’s proposed Rs 72,000 crore “mega infrastructure project” in Greater Nicobar island, which the party said poses a “serious threat” to the tribal communities and the island’s natural ecosystem.

Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said in a statement that the project, initiated in March 2021 at the instigation of the NITI Aayog, had “numerous warning flags”.

Ramesh claims that in view of “numerous violations of due process, legal and constitutional provisions protecting tribal communities, and the disproportionate environmental and human costs of the project, the Indian National Congress demands immediate suspension of all approvals and conduct of a thorough, impartial review of the proposed project, including by the concerned parliamentary committees.”

“The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has given ‘in principle’ approval for the diversion of 13,075 hectares of forest land. This area constitutes about 15% of the island’s land area and represents one of the largest forest diversions in the country in a nationally and globally unique rainforest ecosystem,” Ramesh stressed in his statement.

He pointed out that in the state of Haryana, thousands of kilometers away and in a completely different ecological zone, compensatory afforestation is planned to compensate for the loss of this unique rainforest ecosystem.

Ramesh explained that the coastline where the port and the project are to be built is an earthquake-prone zone. “Situating such a huge project here will endanger investments, infrastructure, people and the ecology,” Ramesh reiterated.

He further claims that the project poses a “direct threat to the welfare and survival of the Shompen, an indigenous community classified as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG).” Ramesh claims that the “project violates the letter and spirit of the Forest Rights Act (2006) which provides the Shompen as the sole legally empowered authority to protect, conserve, regulate and manage the tribal reserve.”