Group of Former Bureaucrats Asks To Withdraw the Proposed Environmental Impact Assessment Policy 2020
A group of 63 former bureaucrats wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and environment minister Prakash Javadekar, asking them to withdraw the proposed Environmental Impact Assessment Policy 2020 and replace it with a more public and habitat-friendly policy.
“It is clear that what the amended policy [EIA] really intends to do is to considerably dilute the existing process of granting environment clearances and to prevent any public scrutiny of the project proponents’ actions,” the former officers said in their letter. “Many of the changes have, in fact, been proposed to circumvent the past decisions of the National Green Tribunal and the Courts.”
The signatories of the letter alleged that the government had no intention of acting on public objections to the draft EIA.
“It is obvious from the fact that the draft notification was available only in English and Hindi and was only on the Ministry’s website until 30 June, and, despite requests that more time should be given for responses, due to the ongoing pandemic, no heed was paid to such requests,” the signatories said. “It was only when the Court stepped in that the last date for receiving responses was extended from 30 June to 11 August 2020 and the draft policy was directed to be made available in 22 languages.”
Last month, the Delhi High Court had rebuked the Centre for not addressing the ambiguity in its order to extend time granted for submission of objections to the proposed EIA till June 30.
The court said the Centre’s May 8 notification about extension mentioned a “further period” of 60 days and also said that the window to file objections would close on June 30. The court had passed the order to the deadline for the filing of objections on environmental conservationist Vikrant Tongad’s petition.
