Citizens have right to contest project, says Green panel

In a major decision, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has observed that any person, even if not affected by the project, can file a petition against the project on the ground that it was a duty of every citizen to protect the environment.

Updated on: Dec 30, 2011, 24:53:46 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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In a major decision, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has observed that any person, even if not affected by the project, can file a petition against the project on the ground that it was a duty of every citizen to protect the environment.

A bench of justice C V Ramulu and Devendra Kumar Aggrawal overruled the government's objection that a person who is not directly affected by a project cannot file a petition seeking cancellation of the environment or forest clearance.

Environment clearance is required for every project where no forestland is to be diverted. In case forestland is to be diverted, both environment and forest clearance is required.

"The person living in the area or vicinity of the proposed project may not know about many intrinsic scientific details and effects of the ultimate project and any disaster, it may cause…Therefore, it may not be proper for this Tribunal to reject an application on the ground that the applicant/appellant as the case may be, is not the resident of the area or not directly injured or aggrieved," the bench said, while withholding the right of people to protest against a project on environmental grounds.

Three residents of Uttarakhand, Vimal Bhai, Bharat Jhunjunwala and Briharshraj Singh Tariyal had filed a petition seeking rejection of environment and forest clearance to 65 meter high hydro project on river Alakananda river. But, the government objected the petition saying they were not living in vicinity of the project.

The bench observed that the nature cannot be allowed to done away with one stroke of pen, in the guise of development, without properly examining the environmental and ecological impact of the project proposed.

Quoting the Constitution, the bench said the protection and improving the natural environment is the fundamental duty of a citizen. "The statutory provisions are subservient to the Constitutional mandates," the bench said.

However, the bench refused to reject the clearance given to hydro project on Alakananda river but asked the environment ministry to prepare a cumulative impact assessment of the river based on studies done by Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee and Wildlife Institute of India in a timeframe.

The NGT also asked the ministry to stipulate a procedure for cost benefit analysis for diversion of a forestland land for each proposal.

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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