EXCLUSIVE: The controversial new draft of India's main law for giving environment clearances—which the Modi Govt tried to push during #lockdown without proper public consultation—was designed to be a diluted version. This is how 2 ministers ensured that. bit.ly/31Ebb99
Briefly put: the specific terms of reference and objectives approved by the ministers for an expert committee working on drafting the new law for environment clearances resulted in some controversial provisions added to its draft, official documents show. bit.ly/31Ebb99
The story begins in April 2018 when Dr Harshvardhan, then environment minister, asked his officials to draft a 'structured ToR' or Terms of Reference for the Dr Satish Wate committee, which was looking at all technical aspects of implementation of EIA 2006 bit.ly/31Ebb99
The EIA 2006 notification is a subordinate legislation that lays out a rigorous process to evaluate, and in some cases mitigate, the impact of projects on human health and the surrounding environment prior to granting clearance to proceed. bit.ly/31Ebb99
Dr Wate's committee was set up in 2013 to look at the implementation of one specific technical issue in the EIA 2006 notification. This was about categorising projects. But by April 2018, the committee was looking at many more issues about EIA 2006. bit.ly/31Ebb99
Dr Harshvardhan wanted this committee to have a specific set of tasks. Soon, he signed off on fresh Terms of Reference for it which included total 'review/re-engineering' & thorough review of categorisation of projects. bit.ly/31Ebb99
Within 6 months, the 'Zero Draft' of this notification was released in the middle of India's general election in May 2019. But this was only a discussion document for stakeholders. It was criticised at the time, too. bit.ly/31Ebb99
With Prakash Javadekar taking over as environment minister in May 2019, not very long after some more 'objectives' were added to the draft of the law being discussed. These were significant additions to the mandate given by Dr Harshvardhan to the committee bit.ly/31Ebb99
A presentation in February by officials to Javadekar has the full details of the 'objectives' and 'principles' for the provisions being designed into the draft environment impact assessment notification. See this link for more details about the PPT: bit.ly/31Ebb99
In less than a month of this presentation to Javadekar, the expert committee & senior officials of the MoEF&CC came up with a new draft of the EIA notification which, on 11 March 2020, the minister approved. It was soon uploaded on the ministry's website. bit.ly/31Ebb99
The most controversial provisions of the draft EIA 2020? It has undoubtedly got to be the addition of more projects into the B2 category which sees the least scrutiny for impact on human health and environment by project proponents while giving clearance. bit.ly/31Ebb99
And what are the kinds of projects and activities added to this category in the draft? Acc to a @CPR_India analysis, projects ranging from inland waterways, drug manufacturing, cement plants and chemical plants are there in category B2. bit.ly/31Ebb99
They will need only cursory approval rather than a rigorous evaluation that they require. But. “These projects are known to have large scale impacts on the environment and living conditions of communities around them,” CPR’s analysis notes. bit.ly/31Ebb99
While the government says this has been done following 'scientific principles', environment lawyers find it arbitrary. bit.ly/31Ebb99
For instance, Adv Parul Gupta, who has written a detailed representation to the MoEFCC about draft EIA 2020 on behalf of @vindhyabachao said, "The exemption provided to Category B2 projects is unjustified and arbitrary." See full story for more details: bit.ly/31Ebb99
