For biz push, govt to relax green laws

The Narendra Modi government is planning to dilute two environmental laws that have held up key industrial projects in the past, as part of its attempts to relax green norms for stimulating economic growth, official sources said.

Updated on: Sep 1, 2014, 01:17:33 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The Narendra Modi government is planning to dilute two environmental laws that have held up key industrial projects in the past, as part of its attempts to relax green norms for stimulating economic growth, official sources said.

The two UPA-era laws – the National Green Tribunal Act and the Forest Rights Act (FRA) – have delayed, among others, the Rs. 52,000 crore Posco project — India’s largest foreign direct investment — in Odisha.

While the tribunal act stipulates powers and functions of the green body to review and reject project clearances, the forest law makes it mandatory for the industry to seek prior consent of tribals and jungle dwellers for projects in notified forest areas.

India’s economy grew at its fastest pace in two-and-a-half years in the last quarter, a turnaround credited specifically to business-friendly measures by the NDA regime.

Policy logjams, project delays and a string of corruption scandals during the UPA’s tenure had pulled the economy into its deepest slump in 25 years.

The environment ministry wants the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to just make recommendations to the government instead of issuing directions like a quasi-judicial body. The ministry also wants only the Supreme Court to have the right to reject clearances.

In addition, tribal affairs minister Jual Oram has been asked to bring changes to the forest laws to prevent its “misuse to stall development”, officials said. The amendments will likely be introduced in the winter session of Parliament.

Environment minister Prakash Javadekar, however, denied the government was trying to weaken laws. “We are reviewing these laws to strengthen them. The changes will improve their implementation and protect the rights of the people,” the minister told HT.

Since its inception in 2010, the NGT – headed by a former SC judge -- had stayed green approvals for several projects. In the Posco case, it asked the environment ministry to review green clearances after some local villages refused to consent to the project under the FRA.

The move to amend legislations was initiated by Javadekar himself. A cabinet note – prepared by his ministry – to water down the powers and jurisdiction of the tribunal would be circulated for inter-ministerial discussion soon, sources said.

An official explained that the ministry wants to revert to the old days of the toothless National Environment Appellate Authority, which used to be an attached office of the ministry. The government never expected the tribunal to become so “powerful”, and now wants a “glorified” form of the earlier appellate authority, he added.

The ministry asked the tribunal a year ago to limit its jurisdiction, a proposal that was rejected by the NGT. On the FRA, officials say the requirement of mandatory consent from the gram sabha (a body of villagers) for initiating any project is the biggest hurdle in pushing infrastructure development in mineral-rich poor regions.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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