There is no doubt that the environment ministry did right to deny Vedanta permission to mine bauxite in the Niyamgiri hill considering the company had clearly violated several environmental restrictions besides illegally occupying 26 hectares of forest land without valid permission. But it is also worth wondering what potential investors are thinking. As the Saxena committee report has highlighted (“Wide-ranging violations prompted ministry action,” August 26), both the central and state governments are also responsible for ignoring what were blatant violations by the London-based company. Governments that are collusive by virtue of neglect, as the Saxena committee report suggests, end up raising questions about the veracity of any investment proposal. The signals that such collusion sends out to investors is that project implementation can be judged in terms of lobbying strength rather than following laws and rules. Some commentators have argued that restricting industry on environmental grounds is bad for development and growth. But how can a polluting project be considered as contributing to development?
Gaurav Gupta, on email
