Eco congress inaugurated

Thiruvananthapuram: Vice-Chairman of the Kerala State Planning Board Prabhat Patnaik has stressed the need for a new approach to development to ensure that everybody has the right to a minimum level of environmental facilities like clean air and safe drinking water.

Speaking after inaugurating the Kerala Environment Congress-2010 organised by the Centre for Environment and Development here on Thursday, he called for a rights-based approach to development for improved access to a minimum bundle of goods and services and environmental facilities. �Our consciousness of the environment must take the form of an overall campaign to ensure that everybody enjoys these rights, he said.

�The role of environment is continuously understated. Development is associated with a growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) under the presumption that production has only a positive impact,� he said.