CHENNAI: The Union Environment Ministry has brought in yet another amendment to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), 2006 offering more relaxations. The Centre has exempted from public hearing all projects whose environmental clearance had expired and which applied afresh.
The new amendment has been gazette notified on March 18. It says the central government deems it necessary to provide certain provisions for the projects which have not been able to complete the construction and commissioning of the proposed activities within the validity period of the environmental clearance granted and have submitted de-novo due to the expiry of the validity of the clearance.
Therefore, in exercise of powers conferred under Section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, the central government makes further amendments in the EIA notification. "The projects where construction and commissioning of proposed activities have not been completed within the validity period of the environmental clearance and a fresh application for EC has been submitted due to expiry of the said period of the EC, the concerned Expert Appraisal Committee or State Level Expert Committee, as the case may be, may exempt the requirement of public hearing subject to the condition that the project has been implemented by not less than fifty percent in its physical form or construction," said Geeta Menon, Joint Secretary at the Union Environment Ministry, in the notification.
According to the EIA Notification, the prior environmental clearance granted for a project or activity shall be valid for a maximum period of ten years and for some projects it is five years. In the case of area development projects and townships, the validity period is further limited. Projects that were not completed within the validity period had to go through all stages of scoping afresh including conducting public hearing. "Now, this has been removed. It is a good move and helps fast-track many projects in the state," a senior Tamil Nadu official said.
However, environmentalists argue that the central government is systematically weakening the EIA Notification. "Since the draft EIA Notification, 2020 hasn't got finalised due to countrywide opposition and was challenged before the court, the Union government seems to be making an attempt to bring in some of the proposed controversial changes through the backdoor with separate amendments such as the latest one," said G Sundarrajan of Poovulagin Nanbargal, a Chennai-based environmental advocacy group.