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Deadline for public comments on draft green policy nears
Environmental groups have opposed the draft citing its contentious clauses.
The deadline for submission of public comments or objections to the draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2020, released in March as part of the process to overhaul environmental regulations for infrastructure projects, is due to expire on Tuesday amid calls for another extension to it.
Environmental groups have opposed the draft citing its contentious clauses. The clauses include the one pertaining to the regularisation of projects, which violated the EIA Notification, 2006, by starting construction work before environmental clearance or by expanding capacity. The draft also proses shortening of the time for public hearings, which give people affected by a project the opportunity to understand it and give their consent.
The draft was released for comments on March 23 and 60 days were provided to the people to send their comments. The Union environment ministry extended the deadline from May 22 to June 30 because of the lockdown imposed to check the Covid-19 spread in late March.
The ministry has received thousands of requests over the last month for extending the deadline and for the redressal of concerns related to the draft. “We have informed the environment minister’s office about these representations,” said Sharath Kumar Pallerla, the director of the ministry’s policy wing.
Pallerla said the draft has been in the public domain for nearly 100 days. “In fact, we had issued a zero draft to get people’s comments in April 2019 following which we held public consultations in several cities on the draft. Recently, we had consultations with industrial associations and accredited environmental consultants also. But still, we are receiving representations to extend time on this notification.”
R P Gupta, the environment ministry secretary, said they do not intend to extend the deadline and have received 30,000 comments.
An expert committee will vet the comments received after the deadline expires and make changes to the draft if necessary before notifying it.
The ministry has been flooded with representations over the draft, according to information obtained under the Right To Information (RTI) Act on June 12 by activist Vikrant Tongad.
The ministry had till April 20 received 1,190 emails. Out of them, 46 related to suggestions and 1,144 to requests for an extension in the deadline.
As per the information under RTI, in a note to environment minister Prakash Javadekar, Geeta Menon, a joint secretary in the ministry, said she has received over 4,000 representations. “Since the EIA notification and any change thereto is of great significance to the management of the environment in the country as a whole and to the matters of access and the utilisation of natural resources…it is suggested that we may extend the time frame to a total of 180 days from the time of issue on March 23,” the joint secretary wrote.
The note was signed off with June 30 as the date till which the deadline for comments will be extended.
Over 50 university student unions, college environment clubs, and youth groups from across the country wrote to the environment ministry on Thursday demanding that the draft be put on hold and rewritten as per recommendations from environmental experts. They cited examples like the May 7 gas leak at Visakhapatnam LG Polymers plant, the blowout at a gas well in Assam’s Baghjan this month, and its consequences on biodiversity, to underline the impact of a “weak environmental policy”.
Kanchi Kohli, a legal researcher at New Delhi’s Centre for Policy Research, said the ministry has 725 days, almost two years, to issue the final notification based on the number and nature of comments received. She added many are demanding the strengthening of environmental regulations in the light of the threefold crisis of health, climate, and economy. “This period between the draft and final notification should not be used to introduce the proposed changes into the existing 2006 notification, as has been done in the past with other laws such as the coastal regulation zone, ” she said.
