Karnataka HC notice to ministry over draft eco-study

BENGALURU: Observing that the Centre should give wide publicity to the draft Environment Impact Assessment 2020 for the public to respond, the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and ordered it to file objections by July 15.

During the hearing on a PIL petition filed by the United Conservation Movement Charitable and Welfare Trust, a division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice M Nagaprasanna said that prima facie, there is merit in the petitioner’s contention that the public did not have enough time to submit suggestions due to the pandemic.  

The PIL said that the draft had been published on the ministry’s website on March 23 and had not been given due publicity, particularly in regional languages. Though the public had been given time till June 30 to respond, postal services in many states had been disrupted due to the lockdown. The petitioners said they had requested the ministry to extend the deadline until December 31, but had received no response.