Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh today said the onus to carry out a Cumulative Environment Impact Assessment for all large projects before securing final clearance from the Centre, lies with the respective state governments.
"It makes much more sense to have a CEIA for all large projects. It is the responsibility of the states. We are ready to provide whatever assistance is required in this regard," Ramesh told reporters after meeting Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy here.
Referring in particular to the row over the move to set up several thermal power plants in the coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh, he said he had spoken to the chief minister twice on the issue.
"I impressed upon him the need to conduct CEIA in vulnerable areas. We will re-do environmental clearances for thermal power plants based on the CEIA," Ramesh said, citing the case of a hydel power plant in Uttarakhand where the environmental clearance was revised based on CEIA.
"In that lone case, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests itself conducted the CEIA but I am strongly in favour of the states doing it," he said, adding that the Maharashtra government had undertaken a CEIA in Ratnagiri district in the context of the Jaitapur nuclear power plant.
If retrofitting is called for, it also has to be done based on the result of the CEIA, the minister said.
Ramesh said he suggested Reddy that an independent monitoring body be constituted to oversee implementation of resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) package for those affected by the multi-purpose Polavaram irrigation project proposed by the state government on river Godavari.
