The Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jayanthi Natarajan on Sunday called for stringent punishment to those who violate environmental laws. No serious imprisonment is currently provided for violators of environmental laws. This needs to be changed, she said.
Inaugurating the VIT- The Hindu Education Plus Club on the VIT University campus here, Ms. Natarajan said that there should be utter transparency in matters concerning environment. Everything connected with environment should be monitored so that the violators of rules do not go scot-free, she said.
Environmental pollution was seen as a public health issue and the Ministry of Environment and Forests had been collaborating with the Indian Council for Medical Research to tackle public health issues arising from environmental problems.
“We have a progressive legislation to protect the environment such as the Environment Protection Act, Forest Conservation Act and the Forest Rights Act, but the laws are observed more in the breach”, she said.
Pointing out that sustainable development and environmental protection could not be seen just as the job of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, the Minister said that every ministry and every agency should have a component on environment to balance the needs of development and environmental protection.
The students have a larger role to play as citizens of the country, as citizens who care for the environment. As educated persons, the students can question the government and see that the laws are implemented.
Presiding over the function, G. Viswanathan, VIT University Chancellor, urged students to put in hard work so that India could compete with China which has advanced in the manufacturing sector. India should use technology to improve the quality of its products and cut down on costs.
Siddharth Varadarajan, Editor, The Hindu , said the mere acquisition of a degree was not enough for one to go forward in life. “Unless you have communication skills, finding your way through complex, difficult challenges becomes hard. The idea of the VIT- The Hindu Education Plus Club is that when the students complete their course, they are equipped with the necessary skills which will make them better citizens not only for their advancement but for the well-being of the society,” he said.
Shalini Arun, Editor, Education Plus, The Hindu, said that The Hindu Education Plus Clubs were born out of the need to equip technical students with communication skills and prepare them to take up careers, especially in the light of the lack of employability skills that is more acute in the semi-urban and rural areas. The first such club was inaugurated in Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh in 2008. Today, there were 120 clubs in Andhra Pradesh and 72 in Karnataka while the VIT-The Hindu Education Plus Club was the first such club to be started in Tamil Nadu, she said.
