As forums for public scrutiny of environmental decisions shrink, public interest is dealt a blow
The fate of most infrastructural and industrial projects in India hinges on an Environmental Impact Assessment Notification issued by the Central environment ministry and state authorities after assessing the potential environmental and social impacts of these proposals.
The Environmental Impact Assessment Notification 2006 lays the ground rules for how the authorities should decide whether these projects should be allowed, and if so, to give an “environmental clearance” specifying the conditions to be followed to ensure that they cause the least possible damage.
Under the Environment (Protection) Rules 1986, it is mandatory for most EIA Notification amendments to be placed before the public for comments. However, this requirement can be done away with “whenever it appears to the Central government that it is in public interest to do so”. The decision of what constitutes public interest has been left to the discretion of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Since 2006, there have been several amendments to the EIA Notification, of which there is no comprehensive listing. We examined 53 amendments made between 2006-2020, available through a compendium for upto 2019, and gazette notifications of amendments made in 2020.
Forty nine out of these 53 required a public notice, and more than 70% of the time, this was bypassed in...
from Scroll.in https://ift.tt/2NkPUZA
via IFTTT
No comments