Odishatv Bureau
New Delhi: Amid growing tussle between Environment Ministry and other ministries, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday said a very "sensitive regulatory system" is needed on environmental issues to achieve balanced development.

"We need more competition in our country to stimulate our economy to promote efficiency. But at the same time we need the regulatory system to ensure that there is fair competition, that the basic purposes of having an environment friendly policy are not ignored," he told the Lok Sabha.

Replying to a debate on the motion of thanks to the President for her address to Parliament, Singh admitted that there is a "delicate trade off" between environment and developments.

"We can neglect neither. Therefore, we need a very sensitive regulatory system. But if we talk of a regulatory system we open up the scope of discretion as well," Singh said.

"Therefore, we have to re-visit the regulatory framework in order to ensure that while we recognise the need for having a sound regulatory system, it must not degenerate once again to a new way of bringing back the licence and permit raj," he added.

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