Nothing making a difference to indifferent Modi govt: Congress slams Great Nicobar project

New Delhi: The Congress alleged on Saturday that the "ecologically disastrous" Great Nicobar project is being bulldozed through, with petitions being heard in courts and professionals having voiced their concerns, but nothing is making a difference to an "indifferent Modi government".

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh shared on X a media report, which claimed that members of the Tribal Council in Little and Great Nicobar have alleged that they are being pressured by the district administration to "surrender" their "ancestral land" to make way for the Great Nicobar Island mega infrastructure project.

"Yet another example of how the ecologically disastrous Great Nicobar project is being bulldozed through. Petitions are also being heard in the Calcutta High Court and the National Green Tribunal. Professionals have voiced their concerns. But nothing is making a difference to an indifferent Modi government," Ramesh said in his post on X.

Responding to a post on the alleged coercion of tribals, he said, "This is unacceptable and shows how the Great Nicobar project is being bulldozed through. It is an ecological disaster." The former environment minister has repeatedly raised the issue in a series of letters to the minister for environment, forests and climate change.

Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi had also slammed the project and alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government has made a mockery of legal and deliberative processes under the project.

Terming the Great Nicobar infrastructure project a "planned misadventure", Gandhi had said last year that it poses an existential danger to the island's indigenous tribal communities and is being insensitively pushed through, making a "mockery of all legal and deliberative processes".

This was countered by Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav, who had claimed that all clearances were obtained, and defended the project as necessary for the country's development.