PM Manmohan Singh Says Center Will Hear Kerala Views on Kasturirangan Report

5 January 2014
Thiruvananthapuram

On his visit to Kerala Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh told that center would not take a decision on Kasturirangan report without hearing the views of the state at meetig with Oommen Chandy and his cabinet colleagues.

The Chief Minister told the PM that the Gadgil and Kasturirangan reports had created a lot of apprehension among the people living in areas identified as ESA.

The government requested the centre to make an amendment that the Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESA) notified would be modified on the basis of physical verification and that the actual habitation and agricultural areas would be deleted. The recommendations of the High-Level Working Group to exclude plantation, agricultural settlements and human settlements having population density higher than 100 persons per square km may be accepted, it said.

It urged the Prime Minister to exempt Vizhinjam seaport from cabotage law as was done in the case of Vallarpadam terminal. It sought his intervention in expediting the Angamaly-Sabari rail project which would be a great boon for thousands of pilgrims visiting Sabarimala shrine every year.

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