Jairam resigns as Chair of House panel on science, environment

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday resigned as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change in protest against the Government not referring key Bills on subjects coming under its purview to his panel.

Ramesh had earlier taken objection to passage of the Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill by Parliament and slammed the government for referring The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill to a Joint Committee of Parliament headed by a BJP member instead of the Department related Standing Committee headed by him.

Both the Bills were passed by Parliament last week. Ramesh said three “very important Bills” “bulldozed” through Parliament were deliberately not referred to the Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change.

“These are Bills that radically amend the Biological Diversity Act 2002 and the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, and the Bill to set up the Anusandhan National  Research Foundation. Not only that, the DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2019 on which the Committee submitted a comprehensive report with many substantive suggestions has been withdrawn,” he said.