Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar on Sunday replied to a letter by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh raising strong objections to the draft Environmental Impact Assessment, 2020 notification, calling his suggestions “unfounded” and based on “misrepresentation”, PTI reported. Ramesh, a former environment minister, is the chairperson of the Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
In his letter, Ramesh alleged that the draft notification reduces public participation in all steps of the environmental clearance process by “lessening the notice period for public hearings and doing away with them for a large category of projects”.
“It does away with environment impact assessment altogether in very many cases of expansion,” Ramesh said. “It increases validity of environment clearances allowing projects to secure land for long durations even when they are not constructed this promotes land grab, not development. It gives the union government full powers to appoint state environment impact assessment authorities.” Ramesh claimed that the EIA draft was another blow to the spirit of cooperative federalism.
Ramesh also pointed out that the changes were not based on research, and added that the draft was the result of an attitude that sees environmental regulation as an “unnecessary regulatory burden”, and not as a means to ensure welfare of people and sustainable development.
In response, Javadekar said: “Draft notification is kept in public domain for comments and suggestions. Your observations are noted. There are 15 more days for suggestions. All your suggestions are unfounded and based on misinterpretation. I will reply to you in detail.”
The environment minister said that the Centre will consider suggestions before finalising the draft, and that government decisions can be scrutinised by Parliament and standing committees.
The EIA, 2020
The new updates to the draft 2020 Environment Impact Assessment notification, which seeks to overhaul the existing EIA, 2006, prescribe the procedure for industries to assess the ecological and environmental impact of their proposed activity and the mechanism, whereby these would be assessed by expert committees appointed by the environment ministry.
Documents accessed by Right to Information Act applicants had shown that Javadekar overruled senior ministry official’s recommendations to extend the time frame for public feedback on the draft.
The environment ministry had put the draft law in the public domain on March 12 for a period of 60 days for discussion and feedback. On June 30, the Delhi High Court extended the deadline to provide public response to the draft to August 11. The petition filed in the High Court, based on which it extended the time for public feedback, had said that the proposed new law does away with the requirement for public consultation for a number of projects.
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