Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has called for a review of all projects cleared or rejected by the environment ministry of the previous UPA government, after former minister Jayanthi Natarajan's explosive letter accusing Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi of interference was made public today.
"All projects need to be re-looked so that all the wrong doings that have happened can be reversed," the Finance Minister said, accusing the Congress government of "crony capitalism."
Mr Jaitley said that a delay in clearances had resulted in growth rates going down radically and accused the UPA of "practicing Sadistic Economy." The economy, he said, suffered as "projects worth lakhs and lakhs of crores were held up because of the whims and fancies of individual leaders."
"The issues which were considered rumours have been confirmed. This letter shows the reality of the UPA govt. There cannot be coercion in environment clearances," Mr Jaitley said.
Rahul Gandhi's views on the Vedanta project "were conveyed to me by his office, and I took great care to ensure that the interests of the tribals were protected and rejected environmental clearance to Vendanta despite tremendous pressure from my colleagues in cabinet, and huge criticism from industry for what was described as "stalling" a Rs. 30,000 crore investment from Vedanta," she writes.
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