Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has said the present design of the Great Nicobar Island infrastructure project "endangers ecology" in a "needlessly unacceptable manner".
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh on X cited the views of former Chief of Navy Admiral Arun Prakash, who has stated that it is both desirable and possible to bolster security without harming ecology.
Sharing a report on Prakash's remarks, Ramesh said on X, "These views on the very controversial Greater Nicobar Integrated Development Project expressed by a very distinguished former Chief of the Indian Navy, Admiral Arun Prakash, who has served in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands merits serious attention. His basic point is this: It is both desirable and possible to bolster security without harming ecology."
"The present design of the project being pushed through by the non-biological PM endangers ecology in a needlessly unacceptable manner," Ramesh said. The Congress general secretary also shared the views of a professional Nicobarese anthropologist Anstice Justin on the Great Nicobar Integrated Development Project and claimed that the project is a "recipe for ecological and humanitarian disaster".
On Saturday, Ramesh had written to Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav over the Great Nicobar Island infrastructure project, alleging the high-powered panel tasked to revisit environmental clearances to the project was "biased" in its very composition and did not carry out any meaningful reassessment.