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Most policies being implemented by environment ministry driven by TSR Subramaniam report
The environment ministry has started implementing most of the TSR Subramaniam committee recommendations. For example, the ministry in March last year commissioned a private law firm to draft a new environmental management act which will act as an umbrella law covering Air, Water and Environmental Acts.
The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice on a plea seeking the creation of an Indian Environment Service on the lines of the Indian Forest Service. The plea seeks effective implementation of the 2014 TSR Subramaniam committee report. Several new policies being introduced by the Union environment ministry recently are based on recommendations of the Committee report including accelerating the time to grant environmental clearances; creating a single-window environment, forest and coastal regulation clearance system and drafting an umbrella environment management law that will subsume the air, water and environment protection acts. Environmental and legal experts have criticised many of these policies but the goal according to the Committee is to balance development and environmental needs. An explainer:
What is the TSR Subramaniam report?
In 2014, the Centre constituted a high-level committee headed by former cabinet secretary, TSR Subramaniam, to review the processes, laws and Acts of the Environment ministry. Following submission of the TSR Subramaniam committee report in November 2014, then environment minister, Prakash Javadekar, said it was an historic achievement that would “balance developmental commitments and environment protection.”
How is an Indian Environment Service going to contribute?
According to the report, the public sector, including the Central and State governments, and various other quasi-official bodies, such as corporations, municipal boards, enforcement agencies, as well as the industrial sectors will require reliable expertise of a high order in the management of environmental issues in recent times.
“Current approval systems and monitoring mechanisms function in a quasi-amateurish manner, leading to sub-optimal management of environmental issues,” the report said, proposing that a new Indian Environment Service be created. To recruit staff in the service, an expert committee may examine the entry qualifications and other details, preferably for recruitment through open competition in consultation with the MoEFCC, the department of personnel and training and UPSC.
What did the committee recommend?
The committee said environmental and forest governance in the country needs to be re-aligned through a series of structural and process-oriented changes. It called for new forestation policy to attract investment in growing trees on private land; defining ‘forest’ to remove any ambiguity; the net present value of forests which is paid by project proponents in lieu of forest diversion be increased; creating inviolate or no-go areas in forests; single-window clearance system for projects requiring environmental clearance; proposed setting up of full time expert body National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) at the Centre, and State Environmental Management Authority (SEMA) for project clearance; introduced a new concept of ‘utmost good faith’ to be brought in through a new legislation, to ensure that the applicant of environmental clearance is responsible legally for his statements; a new model ‘umbrella’ law that will subsume Air Act, the Water Act and the EP Act; creation of a new All India Service – Indian Environment Service among several other recommendations.
What do environmental experts have to say about these recommendations?
Most experts are extremely critical of the recent changes in policy being made following the recommendations. “The creation of dedicated environmental services or creating new legal frameworks like those suggested in the TSR report, may not be able to offer any solution to deeper problems surrounding environmental decision making. The legal standards to protect environment are being routinely lowered down and institutions are being required to focus on granting approvals rather than taking proactive measures to protect the environment. In an environment when committees like the TSR report recommended minimising environmental scrutiny by relying on utmost good faith, there is little new regulators or dedicated government departments can do. The protection of the environment can only be emboldened through clear intent and only by mainstreaming and upstreaming it into economic planning,” said Kanchi Kohli, legal researcher at Centre for Policy Research.
“The timelines for granting environmental clearances is stipulated in the Environment Impact Assessment notification of 2006. We are only trying to meet those timelines and bring efficiency to all systems. I haven’t heard of any Indian Environment Service being created but it’s a very big ministry with different departments. These decisions will be taken at the government level,” said a senior environment ministry official.
Is the environment ministry implementing TSR Subramaniam committee recommendations?
The environment ministry has started implementing most of the TSR Subramaniam committee recommendations. For example, the ministry in March last year commissioned a private law firm to draft a new environmental management act which will act as an umbrella law covering Air, Water and Environmental Acts. In October, the ministry released a consultation paper on amending the Forest Conservation Act 1980 to bring significant changes to forest governance in India including facilitating private plantations for harvesting and exploration or extraction of oil and natural gas deep beneath forest land by drilling holes from outside the forest areas; the ministry in line with the Committee’s recommendations, is in the process of implementing a single window clearance process for all clearances pertaining to forest, environment, wildlife and coastal regulation zone. The average time to grant environmental clearances in all sectors has reduced significantly from over 150 days in 2019 to less than 90 days in 2021, the ministry had said in December. The ministry also plans to rank states on the speed with which they accord environmental clearances (EC) to development projects. The criteria for the ranking was detailed in an office memorandum sent by the ministry to all states on January 17 where they said they will do a star rating for states based on efficiency and timeliness in grant of EC.
