First review of Jairam’s policy

In the first major review of Jairam Ramesh’s policy as in-charge of the environment ministry, environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan has agreed to review the March 2011 order which imposed fresh conditions for considering mining sector projects.

Updated on: Aug 3, 2011, 20:19:34 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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In the first major review of Jairam Ramesh’s policy as in-charge of the environment ministry, environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan has agreed to review the March 2011 order which imposed fresh conditions for considering mining sector projects.

In the four page order, the ministry had imposed a new condition that mining companies cannot seek environment clearance for projects involving forestland without getting stage-I forest clearance. Stage-I clearance is for conducting environment impact studies and stage-II is the final approval.

Any mining project on forestland involves needs two clearances -forest and environment- to operationalise mines. Till the March 31 order, the companies were allowed to simultaneously apply for the two clearances.

The ministry with the approval of Ramesh changed the rule and also advised companies to seek approval only for non-forestland where the ministry’s Expert Appraisal Committee was considering mining projects for final approval without mandatory forest clearance.

Another key change was refusal to allow expansion of mining projects in forest areas without fresh clearance. Earlier, up to 25% expansion was allowed without prior forest approval. “The expansion projects involving horizontal spread with additional land requirement will be dealt with as green field projects, if additional forestland is to be diverted,” the order had said.

The order created lot of fear in the mine sector and it was apparent when coal minister Shriprakash Jaiswal raised the issue at a Group of Minister’s meeting on Tuesday. Sources said Jaiswal termed it an unnecessary impediment in coal extraction. Jaiswal was backed by power minister Shushil Shinde and commerce minister Anand Sharma.

Natarajan reportedly responded by saying that she was not against simultaneous environment and forest clearance process and agreed to review the controversial order issued during Ramesh’s tenure.

However, she was non-committal on scrapping the order and assured to report back her action on the order at the next GoM meeting. She also opposed the suggestion that up to 25% of the expansion should be allowed.

Order and its implications

No automatic expansion of mining projects on forestland
Implication:Many companies were forced to seek fresh clearance which could have taken on average a year. Ministry believed it will prevent misuse of clearances.

No simultaneous environment and forest clearance. First seek stage one forest clearance and then apply for environment clearance.
Implication: Would have caused delay in seeking approval. Ministry believed it will reduce workload and fasten clearance process as only viable projects will be considered.

Fresh approval for renewal of environment clearance of abandoned or sick mines
Implication:Financial burden to seek new approval. Ministry believed it would have provided them opportunity for fresh assessment of impact on environment.

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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