Prakash Javadekar guns for files cleared by Jayanthi Natarajan to find out cases of 'extraneous influence'

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar and former environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan.Files cleared by former environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime would be traced by the government to find out cases of "extraneous influence", her successor Prakash Javadekar said on Tuesday.
Javadekar said that Natarajan's revelations have proved that Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister but not in power as Congress president Sonia Gandhi was interfering in important decisions taken by the UPA government.
"She (Natarajan) has mentioned certain files and she indicated what was happening. But one thing is clear, that the former Prime Minister (Singh) was in office, but not in power. The power was concentrated in 10 Janpath (Sonia's residence). So, we will definitely look into the cases mentioned and hinted at where some extraneous influence has happened. We will see if there is any trace of such extraneous influence," Javadekar said on the sidelines of a climate conference organised by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water here on Tuesday.

 

 

In her letter to Sonia, Natarajan had alleged that she received specific requests from her son and Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhi on environmental clearances and thus rejected big-ticket projects. Natarajan, while quitting the Congress, claimed that she had followed Rahul's directions but he later "changed his stand in favour of corporates" and was vilified, humiliated and sidelined" by the Congress leadership.
Javadekar's remarks came after Union finance minister Arun Jaitley had hinted that the government will review projects granted environment clearance or rejected by the UPA regime in wake of Natarajan's allegations.
"I hope the environment ministry now will go into each of these permissions which were granted and not granted and make sure that these are expeditiously dealt with only as per law and no other consideration," Jaitley had said.
Natarajan had quit Congress following her stunning revelation about the functioning of the UPA government as she accused Rahul and Sonia of constant interference in key issues.
Jaitley had described Natarajan's revelation as a proof of the fact that the UPA was promoting crony capitalism.