Form panel to formulate SEIAA guidelines: NGT

CHENNAI: As the central government delegated powers to State Environment Impact Assessment Authorities (SEIAA) to consider and grant environmental clearance (EC) for all proposals under Category B, the National Green Tribunal has directed the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to constitute a committee to formulate guidelines to be followed by the SEIAAs.

Hearing a petition by Social Action for Forest and Environment (SAFE) against delegating powers to SEIAAs instead of Environment Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the Ministry, the principal bench of the tribunal noted that performance of SEIAAs remain inadequate as per performance audit conducted by the Ministry in pursuance of orders of the Tribunal in respect of Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, SEIAAs.

“Thus, even if the decentralised process was desirable, the same had to be accompanied by capacity building of the SEIAAs. This required periodical training and continuous monitoring at the level of the Ministry,” the bench comprising Adarsh Kumar Goel (chairperson), Sudhir Agarwal (judicial member) and A Senthil Vel (expert member), observed.

Category B projects are related to national defence or strategic or security importance or those as notified by the central government on account of exigencies.

The applicant submitted that the stand taken by the Ministry is against ground reality which has been noted in the earlier order of the Tribunal.

The performance audit reports of the Ministry for two states bely the stand that adequate capacity building has taken place in SEIAAs. Grant of Environment Clearances without effective appraisals is resulting in irreversible degradation of the environment. The SEIAA should be manned by sectoral experts. After grant of EC continuous monitoring of compliance must be ensured. Safeguards of public hearing should not be diluted, the applicant argued.

The bench further observed that while the contentions raised on behalf of the applicant cannot be brushed aside, “Instead of annulling the course of action proposed, we find it appropriate to direct the Ministry to seriously address the concerns raised for ensuring effective appraisals before grant of ECs if the regime in question is to be operationalised.”

The tribunal in its direction said, “the Ministry may constitute a three-member committee headed by its Additional Secretary with two other members being CPCB and Director, NEERI. The Committee may meet within one month and formulate guidelines/safeguards to be followed by the SEIAA.”