Jairam Ramesh urged that the Right to Vote be made a fundamental right, drawing a parallel with a Supreme Court ruling on the Right to Walk. He also raised concerns over environmental clearances and transparency for the Great Nicobar Island Project.
Jairam Ramesh on Fundamental Right to Vote
New Delhi [India], June 20 (ANI): Amid the opposition concerns over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls carried out in several states, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Friday suggested that right to vote should be made a fundamental right.
He made the remarks while lauding Supreme Court order that held that the right to walk on secured footpaths is a fundamental right. The court also urged the government to bring a corresponding law. Jairam Ramesh suggested that the court should also make similar declaration in regard to the right to vote. He said there is need to save the Indian democracy from the "present death spiral".
"The Supreme Court has declared that the Right to Walk on a footpath is a fundamental right. Bravo. Now how about declaring the Right to Vote also a fundamental right. It is of paramount importance in order to save Indian democracy from its present death spiral," he said in a post on X.
The Supreme Court ruled that the right to walk on a clearly marked footpath is protected as a fundamental right under Article 19(1)(d) of the Constitution, which also guarantees citizens the right to move freely along safe and properly designated pedestrian pathways.
Concerns Over Great Nicobar Island Project
Earlier in the day, Ramesh had raised serious concerns over the Great Nicobar Island Project, terming the environmental impact assessments "demonstrably inadequate."
In a strongly worded letter addressed to Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, Ramesh alleged that the project's clearances fall "woefully short" of the ministry's own guidelines.
"I am sorry to say yet again that the environmental impact assessments of different aspects of the Great Nicobar Island Project are demonstrably inadequate and fall woefully short of guidelines set by the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change itself," Ramesh stated in his letter.
Highlighting a lack of transparency and procedural lapses, Ramesh submitted five key points for the Minister's consideration. He wrote, "Six-monthly compliance reports are to be made public. But after March 2024, no such compliance report has been made available. Minutes of the project monitoring committee meetings are being uploaded several months after they have been held."
The MP alleged that crucial plans from top scientific bodies remain hidden from the public eye. "The environmental clearance calls for conservation and mitigation plans to be submitted within 15 days after the clearance was granted on November 11, 2022. These plans also are not publicly available. These include the plans to be prepared by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology (SACON), the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), the Botanical Survey of India (BSI), the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), the Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM) and the Andaman and Nicobar Forest Department (ANFD)." (ANI)
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