MoEF reject GoM proposal on multiple FACs

The environment ministry has rejected a suggestion of Group of Ministers (GoM) to have sector-wise forest advisory committees (FACs) to fasten the project approval process.

Updated on: May 28, 2012, 21:05:16 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The environment ministry has rejected a suggestion of Group of Ministers (GoM) to have sector-wise forest advisory committees (FACs) to fasten the project approval process.

The GoM on coal and mining issues headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had asked the environment ministry to set up an FAC each for a sector. It would have meant a committee to consider mining projects and another for power sector projects.

The new format, if accepted, would have meant forest clearance on lines similar to environmental clearance, where approval is given by sectoral Expert Appraisal Committees (EAC).

The ministry has, however, not accepted the proposal and GoM will be informed about the decision on Wednesday.

According to a senior ministry functionary, the single FAC is doing it work efficiently and no projects are pending with it. “There is no need for sectoral FACs as of now,” the functionary told HT.

Environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan is expected to oppose the move to dilute green rules at the GoM and will insist that the ministry will continue to follow the Supreme Court directions in this regard.

The Supreme Court had said that National Board for Wildlife will consider projects coming up within 10 kms radius of around 600 protected areas in India. “There is no change in that norm,” she said.

But, as HT had reported on Monday, Natarajan said there was discussion on keeping tiger and elephant areas out of purview of NBWL’s standing committee.

Primarily because non-official NBWL members had refused to become “clearing house” for all projects under consideration. The non-official NBWL members had also asked the ministry to prepare proper guidelines for processing the projects and discuss important wildlife conservation issues.

As a result, many road and infrastructure projects passing through wildlife areas are struck. So, the ministry decided to limit the functioning of the standing committee in forest outside protected areas. At a meeting in February 2012, when the guidance document for projects to be considered by the committee was reviewed, the roadblocks were inserted. The changes as reported by HT were never placed in public domain and circulated internally.

Natarajan, however, said no rules have been changed and there is status quo regarding the projects to be considered by the the standing committee. That is, the committee will consider the projects outside protected areas, as referred by FAC. Non-official members of NBWL said that was not the case earlier.

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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