speech about eia 2020
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By Mayank Aggarwal on 29 July 2020. Earlier this year, the Indian government came out with the draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification 2020 seeking to overhaul the norms governing the environment clearance process for industrial projects.
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Mayank Aggarwal on 29 July 2020
Earlier this year, the Indian government came out with the draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification 2020 seeking to overhaul the norms governing the environment clearance process for industrial projects.
The draft came under severe criticism with experts and environmentalists alleging that it seeks to dilute the present laws. To ensure wider public participation and consultation before the changes are made, several groups started campaigns including mass emails to the environment ministry.
India’s Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar’s complaint to Delhi Police against the mass emails to his inbox led to action against three environmental collectives – Let India Breathe, Fridays For Future India and There is No Earth B. The three websites were blocked and the police issued a notice under the stringent anti-terror law, which it later withdrew claiming there was an error.
The government’s action has led to a renewed opposition to the draft EIA 2020. The final deadline for public consultation ends on August 11.
Earlier this month, a complaint from India’s Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar to the Delhi police against mass emails to his inbox led to blocking of websites of three environment collectives that were seeking wider consultations and scrapping of a proposed dilution in country’s environmental norms. While the move was criticised for alleged digital censorship, it also ended up reigniting the public’s interest in the issue.
Following the minister’s complaint, the Cyber Crime Unit of the Delhi Police issued a notice on July 8 to Fridays For Future India, under India’s anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). The use of this law in this particular case drew criticism for its severity. The police then claimed inadvertent error and withdrew that notice on July 16. Currently, the websites have been unblocked, though individual claims about certain internet service providers that are continuing to block the websites still prevail.
The blocking of the websites of the three environment collectives – Let India Breathe, Fridays For Future India and There is No Earth B – came after their respective campaigns in recent months to mobilise public support to protest against Indian government’s proposed draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification 2020 which seeks to replace the EIA notification 2006. The EIA notification regulates the process of environment clearance which is required by projects such as dams, mining, thermal power plants, highways, ports, airports and townships.
The draft was put in the public domain on March 12 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change (MoEFCC) with a time period of 60 days for views and comments from all stakeholders. However, the draft came under fire for allegedly weakening the 2006 version in favour of industry by proposing a system to legitimise projects that violate the norms by starting work without valid clearance, expands the list of projects exempted from the public consultation, and fails to ensure a robust post-environment clearance monitoring system. A zero draft of the EIA notification was released in 2019 and that time too it was severely criticised.
Subsequently, following campaigns pushing for a longer time period for wider public consultation considering that the country was under a lockdown to control COVID-19 spread, the date for comments was extended till June 30, which was yet considered too soon a deadline.
Later, environmentalists approached the Delhi High Court which then, on June 30, extended the time for consultation till August 11 and also ordered the MoEFCC to publish the draft EIA 2020 in 22 official languages of the country so that there is wider participation with the public about a law that could have wide-ranging implications on the environment. The Karnataka High Court, which is also hearing a case in the matter, has warned that it may stay the proposed notification if the central government does not publish it in all official languages to ensure a wider consultation.
During the extended consultation period, experts, activists, non-governmental organisations and collectives such as these three upped the ante against the draft EIA 2020 and mobilised public support against it providing ways to reach out to the government. One of the offerings of these websites was email templates for citizens to participate in public consultation to the Draft EIA 2020 which could be used by individuals to send emails with their concerns to the environment minister. The minister filed a complaint to the police against the influx of emails which then led to the temporary blocking of these websites.