Green nod to defence, public sector projects on priority: Government

Pune: The government will accord top priority to granting environmental clearance to projects in defence and public sector awaiting the green signal, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said.

Asserting that the Modi government will try to strike a balance between development and environment protection, he noted that a large number of proposed projects pertaining to defence sector, airports and border roads had remained on paper for want of environment and forest clearance. "The government will accord top priority to granting environmental clearance to projects in defence and public sector," he told reporters.

"There is no contradiction between the concepts of development and environment protection," he said. To a question on the controversial Lavasa lake city project near here, he said government was not handling private individual company projects on priority basis and would follow a "transparent process" for the green nod. Javadekar said he would also hold a meeting with Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan to pave the way for pending projects in the state.