Congress Targets PM Modi over Great Nicobar Project, Calls It an ‘Environmental Disaster’
NEW DELHI: The Congress on the Centre over the ambitious Great Nicobar Island Project intensified its attack with senior leader Jairam Ramesh accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of steering the country towards an “environmental disaster” and warning that India’s “ecological conscience is on trial” on Thursday.
Ramesh, a former Union environment minister, alleged that the mega infrastructure project threatens the fragile, biodiversity-rich ecosystem of Great Nicobar Island, thereby renewing the party’s opposition to the Centre’s development plans in the strategically important region. Ramesh said there had been growing interest in his sustained public campaign against the project and its potential environmental consequences. To support his arguments, he shared a compilation of his interventions over the past few years.
The Great Nicobar Island Project, one of the government’s flagship infrastructure initiatives, aims to develop the island as a hub of strategic and economic assets, including a transhipment port, an international airport, power infrastructure, and a township.
According to Ramesh, the anthology includes his social media posts, brief interventions in Parliament, and correspondence with various Union ministers, along with their replies, concerning the Great Nicobar Island Project.
“There has been interest in accessing my extensive public engagement over the past few years on the Great Nicobar Island Project and its devastating impacts on that unique biodiversity-rich ecosystem,” Ramesh said in his post. The Congress has consistently raised concerns over the environmental implications of the project, arguing that large-scale development could irreversibly damage the island’s rich biodiversity and ecologically sensitive habitats.
