Conflicting rules allow hazardous waste in

The conflicting rules of two Central Government Ministries has created a legal loophole, allowing importers to bring lakhs of tonnes of hazardous waste into India, without facing consequences.

Updated on: May 3, 2010, 24:40:29 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The conflicting rules of two Central Government Ministries has created a legal loophole, allowing importers to bring lakhs of tonnes of hazardous waste into India, without facing consequences.

The Environment Ministry’s Hazardous Waste Rules, 2008 prohibits import of waste oil, ash and residues from incineration of municipal solid waste, plastic, and unsorted waste scrap. But the same is allowed under the Open General License of the export-import policy of the Commerce Ministry.

Thanks to the confusion, import of ash and residues from incineration of municipal solid waste has increased by about 130 times between 2006 and 2009 and that of waste plastic jumped by seven times during the same period. Most of the waste came from countries such as Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom.

“It is a classic case of one arm of the government not knowing what other is doing,” said Gopal Krishnan of Toxic Watch Alliance, a network of advocacy groups on hazards of allowing toxic waste, whose imports saw a 48 per cent increase between 2006 and 2009.

Environment and Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh has acknowledged the contrary rules allowed illegal import of hazardous wastes into the country. In a letter to Commerce Minister Anand Sharma last week, Ramesh emphasised on the need to align hazardous waste rules and export-import policy to reduce “scope of confusion” at implementation level.

“I suggest that a joint group of the two ministries be set up to resolve the issue,” he said. Ramesh also said that some export-oriented units and those in the Special Economic Zones were importing hazardous waste without seeking approval from either the Ministries. They were also operating without a mandatory “consent to operate” under the Water Act and Air Act — laws aimed at protecting the environment.

“An impression also seems to have gained ground that such units are exempt from the provisions of environment regulations can import hazardous wastes without any permission. These impressions need to be corrected,” Ramesh said. The environment ministry has also sought random checks and strengthening of laboratories.

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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