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Jayanthi attacks Rahul, quits Cong

Revelation: 'Gandhi scion got many projects scrapped'
Last Updated 30 January 2015, 20:53 IST

Senior Congress leader and former Union environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan quit the party on Friday and launched a scathing attack on party vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

At a press conference here hours after her resignation letter addressed to Congress president Sonia Gandhi appeared in a section of the media, Jayanthi accused the Gandhi scion of meddling in the affairs of the environment ministry when she was at the helm during the UPA regime.

“I received instructions from Rahul to scrap several big ticket projects after various NGOs raised environmental concerns over them,” Jayanthi said, dropping hints that the Congress vice-president was interfering in the decision making process.
“I did my duty with due diligence. I had projects investigated. Many of my colleagues in the Cabinet protested strongly. Very often I had to face the anger and wrath because economic progress was stopped,” she added.

“When he (Rahul) blamed my ministry at a Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry meeting for the bottlenecks in clearing big projects, I was totally upset. After all, I worked according to his instructions,” an emotional Jayanthi said.

Jayanthi said though she followed Rahul’s direction on green field projects, she was “vilified, humiliated and sidelined” by the party high command.

Recalling her tenure as environment minister, Jayanthi said she ensured that every single step she took was according to the law and also followed his (Rahul’s) direction on green field projects.

Jayanthi was asked to resign as environment minister in December 2013 by the then prime minister Manmohan Singh.

* Vedanta’s bauxite mine in Niyamgiri hills; refinery and captive power plant nearby
* Relocation of Dhari Devi temple in Uttarakhand, which faced submergence threat due to the Shrinagar Hydro-Electric Project backed by the GVK group
* Adani port and SEZ at Mundhra
* Lavasa hill station development project near Pune
* Nirma cement plant on wetlands in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district

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(Published 30 January 2015, 20:53 IST)

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