Thread by @DeshmaneAkshay

📢SCOOP

Haryana CM Manohar Lal lobbied the environment minister in March to expedite clearances to 15 little known firms which violated the EIA law & weren't eligible to receive Environment Clearance.

Documents show MoEFCC bent the law to help the firms.bit.ly/3CNPuCC

In a letter, the Haryana CM even referenced a special amnesty which his government had granted the 15 firms.

3 months after he wrote this letter, the National Green Tribunal declared this amnesty illegal.

We wrote about the amnesty here. 👇 bit.ly/3xyPt3a

This amnesty, which the Haryana CM was endorsing in his letter to the environment minister, echoed the logic of a provision in the Modi Govt's controversial #DraftEIA2020 which is not even law yet.

Govt's own report has criticised this draft law. See 👇 bit.ly/39Az9p2

But what the Modi Govt has only planned, the Haryana govt implemented to benefit a select group of little known companies.

Yet, the state needed the Centre's help in getting clearances for them.

The MoEF began working to find a way out for the firms. bit.ly/3CNPuCC

Initially, the MOEF&CC relied on a legally dubious procedure that was invented by the environment secretary in June 2020 to help a Vedanta Group company & a Tata Group firm, both of which violated the EIA law.

We have written about the procedure here 👇 bit.ly/3uROVUk

But subsequently, the MoEF drafted a Standard Operating Procedure, which diluted the EIA law, to help the 15 obscure firms that the Haryana CM was batting for--and a few more firms from other states.

The Madras HC found this illegal & stayed the SOP.

bit.ly/3CNPuCC

Despite being a legally sticky situation, the Haryana CM downplayed the violations & the failure of the state to ensure that the units began operations after getting ECs.

It “was overlooked somehow”, the CM wrote in his letter to the environment minister

bit.ly/3CNPuCC