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Old 15th July 2020, 10:37   #1
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MoE's Environmental Impact Assessment Draft, 2020

Dear fellow BHP-ians and readers,

I am starting this thread with the intention of drawing your attention to the Environmental Impact Assessment draft 2020 proposed by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

The Environment Protection Act was introduced in 1986. As part of this act, a process called Environmental Impact Assessment, EIA, was introduced which is applicable to any industrial/construction/development projects in India. The EIA basically looks into the impact and pros and cons of any project on the environment so as to minimize any potential damage to bio-diversity, socio-economic, cultural and human-health impacts that maybe caused due to such projects. Hence any project would be provided approval/clearance from the government only on the basis of the EIA.

The current implementation of the EIA in India is already weak, with many projects operating without obtaining necessary clearance, many projects approved without proper public hearing/consultation with the affected locals and many projects operating on EIA reports created through fudged data and concealment of facts and figures. Such weak implementation has already had devastating effects on the environment and public, such as Styrene gas leak in LG Polymer Plant in Visakhapatnam, on May 7, 2020 that was discussed here (Gas leak from LG chemical plant in Vizag) in Team BHP. A similar incident was reported on May 27, 2020, where due to poor adherence of environment norms, the natural gas of Oil India Limited in eastern Assam’s Tinsukia district had a blowout and caught fire. This caused severe damage to the livelihoods in the region rich with biodiversity. The State Pollution Board, Assam, had reported that the oil plant had been operating for over 15 years without obtaining prior consent from the board.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has proposed major changes to the EIA through a draft released in March 2020. Unfortunately, the proposed changes weakens the already weak EIA and is very industry friendly. It proposes that projects that are already underway and operating can apply for EIA later and get the required approvals/clearance. It categorizes several projects where public consultation with the affected locals is not required and so on. Understandably, several citizens, environmentalists and other organizations are opposed to these changes and are demanding stronger environmental laws instead of weakening the already existing ones. I have added links to the articles and videos on this subject below. Several other links can also be found in the description section of the attached YouTube videos.

Fortunately, any person interested in making any objections or suggestions on the proposal contained in the draft notification may forward the same in writing for consideration of the Central Government to the Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Indira Paryavaran Bhawan, Jor Bagh Road, Aliganj, New Delhi-110 003, or send it to the e-mail address at eia2020-moefcc@gov.in.

The last date to send any objections/suggestions/feedback is 11th August 2020.

I have sent an email with my concerns and suggestions which I am reproducing here. Please feel free to use/modify it.

Quote:
To
The Secretary,
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
Government of India
Indira Paryavaran Bhavan, Jor Bagh Road, Aliganj,
New Delhi-110003

Dear Madam/Sir,

This is a public feedback from a concerned Indian citizen regarding the draft EIA-2020 proposed by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.

Please find below objections/suggestions to the said draft as follows:

1) In light of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide and in India, this draft has not reached many of the stakeholders, people likely to be affected by the new set of rules and people at large, due to the shutdown/lockdown in various parts of the country. Suggestion that a fresh draft be put in public domain, once the shutdown/lockdown is over and resumption of normalcy.

2) The draft EIA 2020 undermines the orders of the National Green Tribunal which had ruled against post-facto approvals. The draft seems to be emphasising that an industrial project that does not have required clearance and has already violated environmental rules will have a right to seek approval for it as long as that project is permissible in the area.

This is disastrous because we already have several projects that are running without EIA clearances. An example is the LG Polymer Plant in Visakhapatnam, where the styrene gas leak happened on May 7, 2020. It was revealed that the plant had been running for over two decades without clearances.

A similar incident was reported on May 27, 2020, where due to poor adherence of environment norms, the natural gas of Oil India Limited in eastern Assam’s Tinsukia district had a blowout and caught fire. This caused severe damage to the livelihoods in the region rich with biodiversity. The State Pollution Board, Assam, had reported that the oil plant had been operating for over 15 years without obtaining prior consent from the board.

Suggestion not to allow post-facto approvals to any project keeping in mind the environmental damage as well as dangers to human life and biodiversity as happened in the above cases.

3) As per this draft, the cognizance of any violation committed by any project can only be made by the project proponent or Government Authority (Appraisal Committee/Regulatory Authority). Hoping that any violator may ‘self-report’ is most unlikely. Suggestion to allow general public, NGOs, media and other stakeholders to report any such violations against any project, which then could be investigated/verified by Government Authority (Appraisal Committee/Regulatory Authority)

4) This draft also seems to propose the weakening of the public consultation process which is and should be an important component in the environment clearance process. In the latest draft, the MoEFCC proposes to expand the list of projects that do not need to seek public consultation before they seek environment clearance. The draft says public consultation is exempted for projects including modernization of irrigation projects, all building, construction and area development projects, inland waterways, expansion or widening of national highways, all projects concerning national defence and security or involving “other strategic considerations” as determined by the central government, all linear projects like pipelines in border areas and all the off-shore projects located beyond the 12 nautical miles.

It also holds that “all projects concerning national defence and security or involving other strategic considerations, as determined by the central government, shall require prior-environment clearance, from the ministry without any change in the category of the project but “no information relating to such projects shall be placed in the public domain.”

Suggestion to include a clear definition of projects which could be classified as “strategic” by the central government as the current draft leaves the term “strategic” as ambiguous.


5) The EIA notification is considered to be an important instrument for enabling environmental democracy through meaningful public participation. This participation is sought to be done through public consultation comprising two components – a public hearing and inviting responses from those having a plausible stake in the environmental aspects of the project. The draft 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 the current 45 days.

The main reason stated for reducing the time is that it would become easy for new investments to complete the formality of EIA. The danger is that if adequate time is not given for the preparation of views, comments and suggestions to those who would be affected by the project, then such public hearings would not be meaningful. Unless a public hearing is meaningful, the whole EIA process would lack transparency and credibility.

The reduction of time would particularly pose a problem in those areas where information is not easily accessible or areas in which people are not that well aware of the process itself.

Suggestion to increase the time period for public consultation and ensure increased reach of authentic information of EIA notification related to the project to the affected public.

6) Another contentious point is that linear projects like pipelines and highways in border areas are exempted from the public hearing. The term “border area” is defined as an “area falling within 100 kilometres aerial distance from the line of actual control with bordering countries of India” which will end up covering a huge area in regions like northeast India, areas rich in forests and biodiversity, which could end up devastated without due diligence.

7) The earlier notification required that the project proponent submit a report every six months, showing that they are carrying out their activities as per the terms on which permission has been given. However, the new draft requires the promoter to submit a report only once every year. During this period, certain irreversible environmental, social or health consequences of the project could go unnoticed because of the extended reporting time. Suggestion to keep the reporting period every six months as is the current norm.


Considering the above points and in general the anti-environmental and overtly investor-friendly attitude, the draft needs to be revisited and improved to make it more environment-friendly.

Yours sincerely,
A concerned Indian citizen
Links -
Original draft EIA 2020 notification - http://environmentclearance.nic.in/w...t_EIA_2020.pdf

https://www.change.org/p/ministry-of...tion_dashboard

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/...aluation-72148

https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge...611958824.html

https://scroll.in/latest/967280/over...essment-policy

https://indianexpress.com/article/ex...ained-6482324/

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/tr...s-5534021.html

https://www.thebetterindia.com/23160...e-india-nor41/

https://linktr.ee/LetIndiaBreathe





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Old 15th July 2020, 17:49   #2
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re: MoE's Environmental Impact Assessment Draft, 2020

Interesting thread to follow.

Quote:
As per this draft, the cognizance of any violation committed by any project can only be made by the project proponent or Government Authority (Appraisal Committee/Regulatory Authority). Hoping that any violator may ‘self-report’ is most unlikely. Suggestion to allow general public, NGOs, media and other stakeholders to report any such violations against any project, which then could be investigated/verified by Government Authority (Appraisal Committee/Regulatory Authority)

The draft says public consultation is exempted for projects including modernization of irrigation projects, all building, construction and area development projects, inland waterways, expansion or widening of national highways, all projects concerning national defence and security or involving “other strategic considerations” as determined by the central government, all linear projects like pipelines in border areas and all the off-shore projects located beyond the 12 nautical miles.

It also holds that “all projects concerning national defence and security or involving other strategic considerations, as determined by the central government, shall require prior-environment clearance, from the ministry without any change in the category of the project but “no information relating to such projects shall be placed in the public domain.”


The draft 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 the current 45 days.

Another contentious point is that linear projects like pipelines and highways in border areas are exempted from the public hearing.
Sounds like good reforms honestly.

Easy to start a Change.org for everything but this is more like "This is bad because I am saying it is bad". Is there a comparitive analysis with the best practices with regulation elsewhere?
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Old 15th July 2020, 18:04   #3
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re: MoE's Environmental Impact Assessment Draft, 2020

On one hand we keep debating on why India is not competing against China but on the other hand we want to keep industries tied down with clearances, adding red tape, bureaucratic hurdles and reducing the ease of doing business. Even things like border roads and public infrastructure development gets stuck in environment clearances (or) endless litigation. There is nothing wrong in making the proposal investor friendly and its actually the need of the hour.

Its easy to pick faults on any reforms in a county as big and diverse as India but I would say that the proposals are quite meaningful, reasonably well thought out and are welcome measures.
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Old 15th July 2020, 20:56   #4
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Re: MoE's Environmental Impact Assessment Draft, 2020

Quote:
Originally Posted by avishar View Post
Is there a comparitive analysis with the best practices with regulation elsewhere?
Found this article online which gives a comparison between processes followed in developed countries vs developing countries and India. Please refer to point #6 in the article.

https://www.cseindia.org/understanding-eia-383


Quote:
Originally Posted by Aceman82 View Post
There is nothing wrong in making the proposal investor friendly and its actually the need of the hour.

Its easy to pick faults on any reforms in a county as big and diverse as India but I would say that the proposals are quite meaningful, reasonably well thought out and are welcome measures.
Agreed. This draft EIA 2020 is being made keeping in mind the ease of doing business in India. But IMO, most laws in India are weakly implemented and many times taken advantage of by those having power and influence.

While this draft seeks to make it easier to do business in India, certain aspects of it have huge potential to be misused by big corporations and industries.

1) The fact that a project can start operations without obtaining EIA clearance and will be allowed to apply for one afterwards, violates the very essence of any EIA.

2) The fact that any violations or lapse in operating procedures carried out by any project can only be reported by the project proponent or a government regulatory authority has huge potential for misuse. IMO, it's naive and highly optimistic to hope that a violator would report himself of any violation!

3) Removal of public consultation from many projects will also lead to clearances being approved without taking all the ground realities into consideration

These are just some of the points which have huge potential of being misused when the current rules are easily getting circumvented.

Broader cases of deforestation, global warming and poor air quality do not hit us in an instant and build up over several years or decades due to which most people fail to notice it until too late. But cases like the recent Styrene gas leak at LG Polymers plant in Vizag can hit us overnight which killed 12 people and sickened hundreds. Investigation after the gas leak revealed that the plant was operating without environment clearance. (Link)

Hence IMO, steps should be taken to ease the doing of business but at the same time tighten the implementation of already existing environmental laws instead of diluting them.
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Old 15th July 2020, 22:03   #5
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Re: MoE's Environmental Impact Assessment Draft, 2020

I appreciate your effort for writing to appropriate authorities. While people may agree/disagree with certain content in the draft, what is important is, incase you have concerns, raise it to appropriate authorities and hope they take an informed decision.

Coming to the content, the draft clearly aims at easing approval process to spur manufacturing. That's a welcome move. However, what is worrying to me is the "postfac approval". It allows industries/organizations to do permanent environmental damage or operate potentially hazardous project.

Personally, in my experience in chemical industries, the bottleneck is not regulations, it's just the bureaucracy. Easing/tightening regulations, IMO is not going to be effective.

Last edited by Thermodynamics : 15th July 2020 at 22:09.
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Old 15th July 2020, 22:21   #6
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Re: MoE's Environmental Impact Assessment Draft, 2020

There's layers of complexity and I have no intention to generalize it into back & white, but how is an expectation of transparency a hindrance to doing business?

On the contrary, hasn't the largest pet peeve of most businesses trying to find a foothold in India always been the non-transparent, arbitrary and sometimes retrospective application of policies (the Vodafone taxation cases from a few years ago comes to mind)?

And how exactly do we intend to fix our policy issues by giving the bureaucracy a free hand without any public visibility? Isn't that scenario potentially risking a descent back into license/permit raj where a bureaucrat's opinion (which can be influenced in multiple ways), and not the merit of the business itself, decides who gets to succeed or even to play?

Businesses don't operate in a vacuum, they operate in an ecosystem where the gen-pop is a stakeholder too. Turning policy-making opaque with vague criteria is not the way to do it, and there's no guarantee it will achieve the intended end-result anyway. Quite the opposite, and often the damage can be irreversible.

Last edited by Chetan_Rao : 16th July 2020 at 02:54. Reason: Typo
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