With less than 10 days to go before public comments to the controversial Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification, 2020 are closed, it emerges that the text of the notification has only been translated into three languages, instead of at least 22, official correspondence accessed by a Right To Information (RTI) request shows.
In a June 30 order, the Delhi High Court had decreed that the draft be translated into “at least the languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution” within 10 days. There are 22 languages on that list.
However, in spite of five reminders by the Centre to various States, the Centre got translations only in three languages — Marathi, Nepali and Odia — according to documents procured by environment activist, Vikrant Tongad.
The draft was originally opened for comments from April 11 to June 11. This was later extended because of the lockdown. After large protests stating that the draft wasn’t widely circulated, and a petition in the Delhi High Court, this date was extended to August 11.
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