Deficiencies in environmental clearances of projects: CAG

CAG today said there are "procedural deficiencies" in the processes for environmental clearances of development projects and delays at each stage of the environmental impact assessment process.
The Comptroller and Auditor General also found that no penalty was imposed by the Environment Ministry for violating conditions of environmental clearance in the last two years
The CAG report on 'Environmental Clearances and Post Clearance Monitoring' tabled in Parliament today also found that Regional Offices (ROs) had not been delegated powers to take action against the defaulting companies.
It also found "shortages" in compliance of 13 general conditions prescribed in the Environmental Clearances by the Project Proponents (PPs).

The non-compliances included non-fulfilment of the Environment Management Plan commitments (EMP), maintaining sufficient greenbelt, activities under Enterprise Social Responsibility (ESR), commencement of construction/operations before grant of EC among others.
CAG sampled 216 projects which had been granted EC between calendar years 2011 to July 2015 to examine the process of grant of Terms of Reference (ToR) and ECs at the ministry and 352 projects which had been granted EC between 2008 to 2012 to check the post-EC monitoring.

The CAG said that out of 216 projects only in 14 per cent of the projects the ToR was granted within the prescribed time limit of 60 days while in others there were delays upto 365 days.

The Public Accounts watchdog said that in 25 per cent cases, the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) reports did not comply with ToR and in 23 per cent cases they did not comply with the generic structure of the report.
"Cumulative impact studies before preparing the EIA reports was not made a mandatory requirement, thus the impact of a number of projects in a region on the ecosystem was not known," it said.
"There were delays at each stage of the EC process namely granting of Terms of Reference (ToR), scrutiny of final EIA Report, appraisal of the application by the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC), placing recommendations of the EAC before the Competent Authority for a final decision and conveying recommendations of EAC and the decision of the Environment Ministry to the applicant," it observed.

In respect of 13 general EC conditions, non-compliance in the projects ranged from four to 56 per cent while shortfall of expenditure on EMP activities (26 per cent cases), ESR activities (20 per cent cases) and development of green belt (47 per cent cases) were found.
CAG said in 56 per cent of the cases, approval of the
competent authority was not obtained for the actual number of trees cut by the Project Proponents (PPs) while groundwater was used without permission in 19 per cent of the cases.
"The annual environmental audit report was not submitted by PPs to State Pollution Control Boards in 19 per cent of the cases and in seven per cent of such cases construction or operations was commenced before grant of EC," it observed.

The CAG found absence of preparation and maintenance of action plan for conservation of flora and fauna in 57 per cent of the cases.
Construction of rainwater harvesting structures was not done in 29 per cent of the cases while shortfall in relief and rehabilitation measures for people affected by projects was observed in 22 per cent of the cases, it found.