Government of India all set to further relax environmental clearance norms, give more power to states

By A Representative

The Government of India is on way to take more steps towards “easing” hurdles on way to environmental clearance for developmental projects. Minister of state for environment, forests and climate change Prakash Javadekar has already said he is working for “streamlining” environmental clearance (EC) process by delegating more powers to the State level Environment Impact Assessment Authorities (SEIAAs). Meanwhile, officials under him are seeking to categorise anew the type of projects to be cleared in states, adding several sectors whose authority for environmental clearance is with the Government of India.

Reports say, Jevdekar’s recent announcement for online application of projects for “expediting the process of environmental clearance” is only the first step, and he said this during a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on July 31. Officials have now prepared a detailed outline amending the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006, which outline a new process for granting ECs for various development projects.

The 2006 notification had categorized all projects into A and B. Category A projects were to be appraised by the Union ministry of forests and environment, while category B projects were cleared by SEIAAs. The proposed amendments want such sectors like thermal power, river valley, mining and other industrial sectors such as paper and pulp, distilleries and fertilizers to be included in the state’s purview.

“Under the category of thermal power plant, now a new sub-category based on fuel type, has been included. The addition involves ‘use of municipal solid non-hazardous waste as fuel’, for which projects with more than 20 megawatt (MW) capacity will be cleared by the Centre, and projects between 15-20 MW will be cleared by SEIAAs. All projects with more than 15 MW capacity using biomass fuel also have been put under the state’s command”, Down To Earth, India’s environmental journal, reports.

“The requirement for coal tar processing units has also been specified under the new amendment, where all such units will be appraised and cleared by the state authority. For mineral beneficiation, the state authorities will now be clearing projects of less than 0.5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) capacity, while the Central ministry will be clearing projects of greater capacity. As per the 2006 Notification, state authorities were entitled to clear projects below 0.1 MTPA capacity only”, the report says.

Then, there is “considerable dilution” for projects lying in the vicinity of protected areas, notified eco-sensitive areas, critically polluted areas and interstate boundaries of river valley projects. The report says, “Under the EIA 2006 notification, for projects that are otherwise category B, are to be considered as category A if located in whole or partially within 10 km of the boundary of such areas. The latest amendment has now the reduced the distance, making only projects located within 5 km of such areas to be considered as category A.”

It may be noted that the Gujarat government has been for long of view that environmental clearance issues have created unprecedented hurdle on way to industrial development in the state. The coastal regulatory zone (CRZ), for instance, alone had put to question the future of Rs 40,000 crore worth of projects about two years ago. In fact, Narendra Modi, before he became Prime Minister, had sharply criticized the previous UPA government for refusing to clear environmental projects online – he said it was a means for corruption.

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Warning bells for India: Tribal exploitation by powerful corporate interests may turn into international issue

By Ashok Shrimali* Warning bells are ringing for India. Even as news drops in from Odisha that Adivasi villages, one after another, are rejecting the top UK-based MNC Vedanta's plea for mining, a recent move by two senior scholars Felix Padel and Samarendra Das suggests the way tribals are being exploited in India by powerful international and national business interests may become an international issue. In fact, one has only to count days when things may be taken up at the United Nations level, with India being pushed to the corner. Padel, it may be recalled, is a major British authority on indigenous peoples across the world, with several scholarly books to his credit.

Gujarat Bitcoin scam worth Rs 5,000 crore "linked" with BJP leaders: Need for Supreme Court monitored probe

By Shaktisinh Gohil* BJP hit a jackpot in the form of demonetisation, which it used as an alibi to convert black money into white in Gujarat. Even as party scrambles for answers of how the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB), whose director is BJP president Amit Shah, received old currency worth Rs 745.58 crore in just five days, and how Rs 3118.51 crore was deposited in 11 district cooperative banks linked with Gujarat BJP leaders, a new mega Bitcoin scam, worth more than Rs 5,000 crore has been unraveled.

Counterview

Search This Blog