In-principle green approvals scrapped.
In a decision that will help streamline clearance procedures, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has decided to reconstitute the Expert Appraisal Committees (EACs), while stopping the practice of giving “in-principle” clearance to projects.
The EACs are constituted under the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification for giving clearances to projects. In the past, there have been allegations of conflict of interest against some of the members of these committees. The EACs are expected to be reconstituted over the next few days.
The big projects given in-principle approvals recently were Vedanta for bauxite mining in Orissa and South Korean steel major Posco for iron ore mining. Some weeks ago, Ramesh said Vedanta had violated the Forest Rights Act after getting the in-principle approval. He said the company started work in the non-forest area of the project, when according to law, it had to wait for clearance from the forest area of the project.
| IN THE PIPELINE Status of environmental and forestry clearances as on 31 March, 2010 | ||
| Sector | Environment | Forest |
| Coal | 25 | 14 |
| Hydel & irrigation | 7 | Hydel-5, Irrigation-6 Total 11 |
| Thermal | 21 | 2 |
| NHAI | - | 2 |
| Roads & highways | - | 8 |
| Cement | 6 | 2 |
| Steel | 37 | 5 |
| Airports | 1 | - |
| Ports | 2 | - |
| Railways | - | 3 |
| Defence | - | 1 |
| Transmission line | - | 8 |
| Others | - | 11 |
| Total | 99 | 67 |
“I have put an end to this practice,” Ramesh told Business Standard. “There will now be a stage of recommendation and a final approval.” On EACs, he said there will be three appraisal committees set up to look into coal and power projects, infrastructure and hydel projects.
Questions were raised in the past by activists on the role of certain people in these committees. A non-government organisation, Kalpvriksh Environment Action Group, in an article had questioned the neutrality of decisions taken by an ex-secretary of the Ministry of Power as an EAC chairman, while being on the governing board of hydro power developers. In another such appointment, the head of a leading NGO, also a representative of an industry association, was on an environmental committee. Ramesh agreed that some decisions may be taken under the influence of the industry and members were also selected to favour a select few. “I have got ministers and members of Parliament badgering me on specific names to be put into those committees. Two ministers and four MPs have spoken to me for pushing the name of a person as the chairman of one such committee,” he said.
In another such published case, on July 26, 2007, an environment clearance was granted by an EAC committee on mining, chaired by a retired IAS official who was also director of four mining companies. “Shoddy is a mild word for what goes on,” he said. “Most people think it is only a formality,” said Ramesh.
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“There is a lot of ‘golmaal’. Public hearings are not held and decisions are doctored,” he said in a scathing indictment of the present process of clearances. Proposed new members for the committees have been asked to declare their conflict of interest before finalising the list. In addition, Ramesh has also put an end to the system where each expert appraisal committee worked in isolation. So, project proponents often took separate environment clearances, with no one looking at the project in totality. The clearance for work in a coastal zone has now been clubbed with environment clearance. Projects that involve both environment and forestry clearance will no longer be given piecemeal clearance as was done in the past.
Power projects, for instance, will require an integrated clearance. “No environment clearance will be given without looking at forest clearance. If you give environment clearance to a power project, it would also need a clearance under the Forest Rights Act, as coal mines would be in a forest area,” said Ramesh.