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Environment minister Prakash Javadakar landed in the middle of a controversy on the first day of his taking over the reins, with regular and pre-scheduled meetings of the expert panels appraising projects being projected as a precursor to his quick nod to Rs 80,000 crore worth projects.
The news reports sent the environment ministry officials scurrying for explanations to the minister, who on the first day had only spoken of putting the application for such clearances online and said that modalities of ensuring fast clearances would be looked at in due time. The work on online application process itself had begun during the end of UPA’s tenure and kept ready for the new incumbent to release.
The environment ministry provides two key green clearances under the Environment Protection Act, 1986 and the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. Under both the laws statutory expert appraisal bodies are set up which meet at pre-scheduled dates almost every month after giving prior notice to the project developers and public about them.
The expert committees under the Environment Protection Act are sector-specific and have already held the scheduled meetings for May. The one appraising industrial projects and another one for mining projects (besides coal) was scheduled for May 28-30 and the one for projects on coast was held in mid-May. The expert committee on hydropower projects was held in first week of May while the coal projects appraisal group had last cancelled its meeting for April and will be rescheduled for June now.
Once the committees appraise the project - appraisals are only recommendatory in nature - the cases are conveyed back to the environment ministry and formal letters of approval are issued with the approval of the environment minister. The minister holds the powers to send it back for review yet again if he or she disagrees.
The May 28-30 meeting of the mining appraisal committee considered, besides others, SAIL’s pellet plant in Chhattisgarh the application for which had been put before the environment ministry on April 7. The meeting over three days was to discuss over 80 cases including those which have approached the ministry for setting the Terms of Reference to carry out environmental scoping and impact studies.
The hydropower committee had appraised 8 projects in the first week of May – several of them being old cases being reheard for clarifications sought from project developers. The 3,000 MW Dibang project in Arunachal Pradesh was one such case that came up and was deferred yet again for want of details about its cumulative impact when seen along with other projects on the river basin.
A source in the ministry told Business Standard, “The meetings of the expert appraisal committees were scheduled well before the new government took over charge and the agenda for each meeting was circulated in the month of April in most cases.” The circulation of agendas was verified by Business Standard separately.
“Some appraisals from previous meetings that had not been cleared by Mr Veerappa Moily and others that arise from these meetings in May would naturally be forwarded for Mr Javadekar’s approval in due course,” he added.
The forest advisory committee which reviews projects requiring forest lands was also scheduled and announced for May 30 in the month of April based on the pending list of that month.
The UPA had begun the process of evaluating the difficult projects under the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure but it too had to refer the cases back to the statutory expert committees of the environment ministry under the green laws to review cases in light of what it referred to as new information. But it had also hit a roadblock with the National Green Tribunal ordering that application of scientific review had to be proven in cases where the environment minister took a differing view than the expert committee on clearances.
