State officials, not Centre blocking projects: G Sudhakaran

KOCHI: Coming down heavily on the Forest Department, Public Works Minister G Sudhakaran on Tuesday alleged that a section of forest officers were blocking development projects in the state. “When I met the Ministry of Environment and Forest secretary in Delhi in 2017, the official told me that the Forest Department here was referring to the Centre even those files on which it can itself take a decision. It is not the Centre but a section of officers in Kerala who are blocking development projects.

This amounts to dereliction of duty,” Sudhakaran told TNIE. He was responding to a query on the likely hurdles in obtaining environmental clearance for the Anakkampoyil-Meppadi tunnel road project which was launched by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday.