Kerala has asked the Centre to reconsider some of the key suggestions in the draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) 2020 notification as its sweeping proposals had the “potential for considerable negative consequences” on environment protection and conservation.
Opposing the suggestion to reduce the 30-day notice period for public hearing to 20, the State argued that public opinion should never be suppressed in a democracy.
If the consultation period is reduced, tribal and local communities will find it difficult to voice their concerns through their representatives in a short span on time. The neglect of the voice of the people will endanger the social fabric and the values enshrined in the Constitution. Hence, the time for public consultation shall be retained as 30 days, the State argued.
The draft suggests that prior environment clearance from the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority is required for the mining of minor minerals in projects of lease area between 5 ha and 100 ha. However, the State contended that prior environment clearance shall be made mandatory for all mining projects of area between 2 ha and 100 ha.
For projects less than 2 ha, the responsibility of clearance shall be delegated to the District Environment Impact Assessment Authority (DEIAA) rather than the State authority, it suggested.
Kerala was also critical of the draft recommendations, which failed to mention the role of the DEIAA in issuing environment clearance.
The EIA 2006 notification states that applications for environment clearance for mining of minor minerals from projects of lease area up to 5 ha for individual leases and up to 25 ha for clusters will have to be dealt at the district level through the DEIAA and the District Environment Appraisal Committee (DEAC).
It is “highly essential that the DEIAA should find a place in the new notification to ensure proper delegation, transparency, and speedy disposal of projects. This is necessary especially when the DEAC provisions continue to exist as per the draft notification”, the State pointed out.
The suggestions of the State, filed by Usha Tittus, Principal Secretary, Environment, also called for more dialogues with the stakeholders considering the pandemic situation prevailing in the country.
It was on August 11, the last day for submitting the suggestions, that the State forwarded its proposals to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.