The Gadgil panel had faced opposition from states for recommending that almost three-fourth of the hills, including plantations, cultivated lands and large habitations, in the Ghats be turned into a restricted development zone with an over-arching authority to regulate the region superseding the elected authorities' role.
The Kasturirangan panel has sought to balance the two concerns of development and environment protection, by watering down the environmental regulation regime proposed by the Gadgil report in 2012.
Responding to a question, Javadekar said that Modi-led government will always be a “PM-CM” team. “We have said that it will be the PM-CM team and it is not about only BJP CMs but about all CMs, so concerns of the states will definitely be addressed in all spheres,” he said.
“We will ensure through our actions, policies and programs that environment protection and growth, both can go hand in hand,” Javadekar said.
He said that resumption of mining was also a crucial issue which would be solved on priority. “Goa mining issue is very important because we have been fighting against illegal mining. After the SC order allowing 20 MT, we will have to see how fast we can implement it. We will have to taken into confidence various things while implementing it,” the minister said.
The Supreme Court had last month allowed an annual cap of 20 million tonnes of iron ore to be extracted in Goa which was banned by it earlier.
