Centre’s environment assessment draft draws flak

“The EIA draft notification 2020 weakens the process of public participation which is not good for a democratic country. Making EIA notification less than three weeks before the public hearing will make verification about projects difficult for the public,” says A Sankar, Executive Director, Centre for Environment and Consumer Education, Research and Advocacy.

The recently introduced draft EIA notification, 2020 aims to replace the already existing EIA notification of 2006 which had many shortcomings, and according to environmentalists even fail to protect the environment.

However, the proposed notification too has several shortcomings, say environmentalists in the State, who have put forth several suggestions to strengthen the notification. One of the main issues that irk the environmentalists is the problem of the public hearing which they see as key to any project.

“Only one public hearing should be conducted in a day in one district as more public hearings will not serve the purpose. Similarly, 30 days’ time should be given to conducting a public hearing and the time should not be shortened as it will give enough time for the public to understand in detail about the project for which public hearing is conducted,” said Sankar.

Environmentalists also urge the Centre to include renewable energy in the purview of EIA draft notification of 2020. “Solar projects, solar thermal projects and setting up of solar parks can significantly affect the socio-economic condition of people as they too alter the nature of land usage. Sadly, they are not included in the draft EIA notification of 2020 which is one of the main shortcomings of the notification,” said V Prabakaran, an environment activist based in Chennai.

Prabakaran said that similar to solar energy windmills, wind projects should also be brought under the ambit of EIA notification. He further pointed out that clause 26 of EIA notification, 2020, exempts 40 different projects from getting environment clearance. “The Centre should rethink on exempting such a large number of projects from getting environment clearance,” said Prabakaran.