Concerns are founded on draft EIA 2020 notification, Jairam Ramesh tells Javadekar

Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 27

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A day after Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar termed as “unfounded and based on misinterpretation” his “suggestions” regarding the contentious draft EIA notification 2020, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change Jairam Ramesh said on Monday that his “concerns are founded very much on what is there in black and white”

“You accuse me of misrepresenting the provisions of the Draft EIA 2020 Notification. Please allow me to respond in detail correlating my stated objections with specific provisions contained in the Notification,” Ramesh said in a detailed four-page letter to Javadekar.

“You say my suggestions (surely you mean my concerns!) are unfounded. All I can say is that these concerns are founded very much on what is there in black and white in the draft EIA 2020 Notification,” added the former Environment Minister

Regarding the most contentious provision in the draft, the post-facto project clearance, Ramesh said in March 2017 the ministry issued a Gazette notification giving projects that violate the EIA notification a one-time six-month window to approach the ministry for post facto approvals. Since then the ministry has set up a special “Violations” EAC that is regularly reviewing post facto approvals, including two large mining and real estate projects and also projects like LG Polymers where there was a recent gas leak, he said

The draft notification now accepts that “such violations being recurring in nature” and introduced a mechanism of dealing with violation cases, Ramesh said, adding that with the notification the government is “routinising” the recurrent nature of violations. The Supreme Court has observed that post facto clearances are not recognised under the environmental jurisprudence and are also against the precautionary principle, he added.

Ramesh wrote about his other concerns, including “reducing” public participation in all steps of environmental clearance process and “doing way” with environment impact assessment all together in very many cases of modernisation and expansion, referring to specific clauses in the notification. In his previous letter he claimed that proposed changes “are not based on audits, assessments and analyses or any research but reflected a mindset that sees environmental regulation as an unnecessary regulatory burden”.

The proposed changes in environmental clearance process will “routinely legitimise illegality and promote land grab, not development”, Ramesh said to which Javdekar told him on Monday that all his “suggestions are unfounded and based on misinterpretation”.

The Environment Minister said the draft notification is kept in the public domain for comments and suggestions.

“Your suggestions are noted. There are 15 more days for suggestions. I will reply to you in detail. Government will finalise after considering various suggestions,. Government decisions are always open for scrutiny by Parliament and Standing Committee,” Javadekar said.

The notification that aims to overhaul the environmental clearance process has received widespread criticism from several environmental experts who are questioning various provisions, especially post-facto project clearance, doing away with the mandatory process of public consultation for a wide range of projects and increasing validity of the environment clearances.  According to Ramesh the draft “has provisions that will routinely legitimise illegality” and “reduces public participation in all steps of the environment clearance process”.