There was a time when India used to have a notorious Licensing System which was infamously known as ‘License Raj‘. Anyone wanting to start up a new industry or even expand production beyond a certain level had to get a permit or a ‘license’ from the government to do so. This was meant to be an instrument for directing production into socially useful activities and thwart industries from going into areas that the government considered lacking in worth. This process was considered as hindrance to the growth of the country and the government with a resilient mind removed it and promoted the concept of ease of doing business.
With the similar objective of promoting investments through transparent and expedient approvals by implementation of an online system, further delegation, rationalization and standardization of the process as part of ease of doing business in March 2020, the environment ministry proposed a draft notification to replace the 2006 EIA. Currently, the notification is at the stage of public comments. This draft raised key concerns among the communities as it primarily provides for a reduction of time period from 30 days to 20 days for the public to submit their responses during a public hearing for any application seeking environmental clearance.
It also requires that the public hearing process be completed in 40 days compared to 45 days under the 2006 notification. In addition to this projects can receive clearance post-facto, i.e. a project operating in violation of the EPA can now apply for clearance and it also increased the discretionary power of state government to waive the process of getting clearance for strategic projects (where it can include long list of projects).
Background of Environment Impact Assessment and Public Hearing
Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth… these are one and the same fight. We must connect the dots between climate change, water scarcity, energy shortages, global health, food security and women’s empowerment. Solutions to one problem must be solutions for all.
– Ban Ki-Moon
India issued the country’s first Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification in 1994, under the Environment (Protection) Act (EPA) of 1986. This was later replaced by a modified draft in 2006. In both forms, the EIA performs the important function of assessing and regulating the impact of new projects on the environment and empowers the public to participate in the process of approvals.
The Environmental Impact Assessment report, Environment Management Plan and details of public consultations have to be submitted by the project proponents to the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) for appraisal of the project. The 2006 notification made clearance of a four-step procedure with screening, scoping, public consultation, and appraisal as mandatory steps to be followed by project proponents before clearance could be granted. After these four steps have been followed, the recommendation for acceptance or rejection of EC is sent to the regulatory authority, which is the MoEF for category ‘A’ and State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) for category B projects. Public consultation is the third step in the process of environmental clearance.
The enactment of this procedure was influenced by series of environmental problems which can be exemplified through the cases such as Bichri village where many villages, agricultural land water of the wells, surface water, cattle, and human beings were badly affected because of the industrial operation in the district of the Udaipur, state of Rajasthan and Tanneries case where public hearing before setting up of the factory was considered as an important measure. In the Samarth Trust Case, the Delhi high court had considered EIAs “a part of participatory justice in which the voice is given to the voiceless and it is like a jan sunwai, where the community is the jury”.
Sustainable Development
It is often argued that the process of environment clearance is leading to piling up of files and delays in projects. Developers complain that the EIA regime dampened the spirit of liberalization, leading to red-tapism and rent-seeking. This is the present state of implementation of existing mechanisms in Kerala, the administration took 1,049 days to clear the construction of the IT park project of M/s L&T Tech Park Ltd, instead of 105 days.
Amidst this, in the case of Vellore Citizens Welfare Forum vs UOI it is held that companies are vital for the country’s development, but having regard to pollution, the doctrine of ‘Sustainable Development’ must be adopted by them as a balancing concept. If final clearance is granted after taking into account the environmental, social, and health concerns, then it can be said that the government is using this process as a tool to ensure sustainability which implies that the delay in clearance should be encountered while balancing it with the above concerns.
Reduced capacity to clearance and administrative inefficiency in granting clearance was often highlighted right from Sterlite to LG polymers’ case which has shown us the dampening spirit of the government towards already existing environmental laws.
Conclusion
A solution to development should also solve the problem of mounting environmental challenges. Introduction of environmental impact assessment is the hallmark of participatory governance in the country and dilution of this in any way hampers the primary aim of promoting a sustainable environment. Encountering bureaucratic inefficiency would always be a welcoming step but granting discretionary powers to the same authority would always raise concerns among the communities.
