The Hindu Business Line : Plan to simplify eco clearance to industries

A MOVE is afoot to simplify the process of giving environmental clearance to industries. The exercise is part of a World Bank-aided project for building overall capacity of environment and its management in India.

The main area, which is being targeted, is the environmental impact assessment (EIA) on which the clearance often hinges.

Sources said that as per the report prepared in this regard, the project cost of an industrial unit would no longer be the qualifying factor for necessitating an assessment.

Currently, while projects below an investment of Rs 10 crore are not required to submit an EIA, there are a number of grey areas such as the case where, in certain areas, there are restrictions on use of water, which would make an EIA necessary irrespective of project size.

An umbrella guideline covering most industry sectors has been proposed against the segment-wise guidelines that are now required to be followed for preparation of an assessment by industry.

For preparation of an EIA and the subsequent environment management plan, a database is often required featuring the flora and fauna of a particular region. As part of the proposed modifications, State-level environment agencies such as the pollution control boards and the department of environment and forests would be required to create this database, which then will act as a reference point.

Prof O.V. Nandimath of the National Law School, who was involved in the exercise, told Business Line that the Centre for Environment, Law, Education, Research and Advocacy (CEERA) a body under the law school, had helped chalk out the package of modifications for simplifying the layers in getting environmental clearance.

Pointing out that the report has already been submitted by the CEERA to ERM Consultants, a Delhi-based outfit which was appointed by the Union Ministry of Environment of Forests (which had got the IBRD aid) to draft a report on the proposed notification on simplifying the clearance procedure, Professor Nandimath said that the entire exercise was being done as part of a World Bank-aided environment management capacity building project.

"Strengthening the environment clearance process and simplifying the EIA procedure was one of the components of this project" he said on the sidelines of a corporate workshop on Greening of industries: Improving the bottomline". The workshop was organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce.

Mr Nandimath, however, said that the present system of public participation during the process of giving consent was likely to remain. "The industry was in favour of doing away with this requirement which NGOs find very useful", he said.

The CEERA team felt that if NGOs do this in a meaningful manner, it acquires a participatory value.

Earlier, speaking at the workshop, Professor Nandimath dwelt on the Energy Conservation Act, which came into force in March 2002.

He said that non-compliance with the act attracted a penalty of Rs 10,000 for each instance of failure and additional penalty at the rate of Rs 1,000 per day for continuance of failure.

The immediate past-Chairman of the Central Pollution Control Board, Professor Dilip Biswas, said that it was not possible for PCBs to police the industries continuously and there was a need to move from the `command-and-control' regime towards a management systems framework.