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On the day the Congress opened a broadside attack against the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government for trying to dilute environmental regulations, the Union minister Prakash Javadekar (pictured) came out looking less upbeat about achieving the overhaul soon.
At the end of a two-day conference with state forest ministers and officials, Javadekar said, “The TSR Subramanian committee recommendations are one input. States have given their suggestions — those are other inputs. Other people concerned about the environment have also given us their inputs. We are considering all inputs and we will come out with a comprehensive law in a little time. We are not in hurry. It won’t be only on the basis of the TSR report.”
The NDA government had set up a panel under ex-Cabinet secretary T S R Subramanian. It has recommended radical changes to environmental laws and policies that have been panned by most environmentalists for only working to ease the regulations for business. Some of those changes that the Centre has approved of in principle — such as doing away with clearances under the Air and Water Act — impinge upon the powers of the states according to the Constitution.
Congress’s official spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, “The Subramanian committee report seeks to dilute and dismantle six flagship environmental laws. The report, made in 60 days, seeks to destroy whatever we have achieved in 60 years on environment protection.”
For the first time since the report was put in the public domain, the principal Opposition party criticised several of the dilutions recommended by the panel. This included doing away with the veto powers of tribal communities over forests, reducing the no-go area for mining to minimal and dilution of the powers of the National Green Tribunal and self-certification of pollution loads by companies.
Surjewala added, “We want to tell the honourable Prime Minister that environmental protection is not just about stories of ‘naani-daadi’ (grandmothers). It is more than that.” He was referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech on Monday to the state forest minsters where he had focused on Indian traditional ideas and more civic action by citizens to prevent environmental damage and not talked of the changes the NDA government was planning to the regulations.
The government has already decided to hire consultants to draft the comprehensive new law that could subsume some existing green laws and set up a regulatory mechanism based on self-certification, almost automatic clearance for most projects and other changes. Several of the dilutions and changes that the NDA government has carried out through executive orders also found their place in the Subramanian panel report earlier. These did not need concurrence of the state governments.
But on Tuesday, the minister said in the ongoing session of the Parliament, the government would only bring in two amendments. Both of these are likely to find support from states. One, called the CAMPA Bill will ensure a greater part of the monies collected from industries that chop forests go back to the states concerned. Another amendment Bill to the Wildlife Protection Act, which has been in the works since United Progressive Alliance days, is likely to increase the penalties for wildlife crime.
While the minister had earlier indicated that the changes to the laws would be brought in two-tranche the agenda of the state ministers’ meet had already laid down the more radical changes the government plans to carry out by the next session of Parliament.
