Tamil Nadu Farmers Protection Association protest against environment authority in Chennai

CHENNAI: Alleging that the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) is supporting environmental violations instead of protecting the environment, the Tamil Nadu Farmers Protection Association and other environmental organisations staged a protest in Chennai on Thursday.

Easan Murugasamy, founder of Tamil Nadu Farmers Protection Association said that SEIAA has become the major reason for the destruction of the environment as the authority is giving clearances to sand mining, granite and mining of other minerals, apart from providing clearances to SIPCOT industrial parks indiscriminately.

"The Authority was constituted to protect the environment. But, it has become the reason for environmental degradation. The Authority is providing environmental clearances without conducting proper assessments of the environmental impacts of projects. The SEIAA is also not taking action against the firms that violate the environmental norms," he alleged.

Alleging that the members of the SEIAA are corrupt, the protestors urged the state government to suspend the corrupt officials and appoint honest officials to the SEIAA. When the protestors marched towards Panagal Maligai in Anna Salai, police stopped them. Around 200 protestors were arrested for protesting.

The central government had constituted State Environment Impact Assessment Authorities for the states to deal with environmental clearance for sensitive projects. Without environmental clearances from SEIAA, private and government projects impacting the environment ought not to be implemented.