NEW DELHI: Over 1,600 students from across India have urged the Centre to withdraw the draft environment impact assessment (EIA) notification, expressing concern that such amendments will leave the earth "uninhabitable" for future generations.
In a 22-page letter to the ministry of environment, the students suggested that India should implement an environmental policy that follows the Principle 10 of the Rio declaration - the right to freely access information on environmental quality and problems, the right to participate meaningfully in decision-making, and the right to seek enforcement of environmental laws or compensation for harm.
The students are from various law collages, including the National Law School, Amity University and Jindal Global Law School (JGLS).
"We certainly have a lot to learn from other jurisdictions.
On a comparative analysis of EIA regulations in India with countries of the EU and the USA, it can be observed that the process in India deliberately limits involvement of public and government agencies in the initial stages and has no provision to account for landscape and visual impacts of a project," the letter, drafted by legal aid of Jindal Global Law School, said.
The letter was signed by more than 60 student unions from across India.
However, after not receiving a reply, they sent another letter to the Prime Minister's Office on June 28 with the signature of over 80 student unions, one of the students from JGLS said.
"They also filed multiple grievance complaints on the MyGov portal, but these were all rejected," he added.
Some of the suggestions by the students include keeping a flexible time period for public consultation with a minimum of 60 days, mandating a consultation method that requires a participatory approach of programmed implementation with equal opportunity for every stakeholder to voice their opinions for all projects, abolishing Post-Facto Clearance (already struck down as illegal by the Supreme Court).
Refining the basis on which industries are categorised to include environmental impact, making compliance procedures more structured and strict, increasing penalties for defaulters, making compliance reports public, and setting up an independent 'Environment Regulatory' body are among the suggestions.