The Hindu : Growing resentment over Forest Ministry draft notification

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 26, 2003

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Growing resentment over Forest Ministry draft notification

By Aarti Dhar

NEW DELHI Dec. 25. There is growing opposition to the draft notification of the Ministry of Environment and Forests requiring a clearance from the Centre for all major urban development projects. While environmentalists are happy over the draft, whose final notification is expected shortly, the States see it as an "infringement" on their powers.

The draft notification makes clearance from the Centre mandatory for all urban development projects worth more than Rs. 50 crores, or complexes accommodating more than 1,000 people or producing 50,000 litres of effluents a day. Even projects intended to be implemented in a phased manner or in modules will be required to submit the detailed report of the entire project covering all phases or modules for appraisal under the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA), notified under the Environment (Protection) Act.

Three Chief Ministers have already condemned the notification by describing it as an abrogation of the powers of States. The first salvo was fired by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, who shot off letters to all Chief Ministers and Lieutenant Governors of Union Territories seeking their support in opposing the said notification that sought to bring all major construction projects under the purview of environment impact assessment to be made by the Union Government, thus abrogating the powers of the States. The notification came on the day Ms. Jayalalithaa was to lay the foundation of a new secretariat complex in Chennai.

The Chief Ministers of West Bengal and Nagaland have already replied to Ms. Jayalalithaa's letter expressing solidarity with the cause raised by her, making it obvious that the State Governments have not welcomed the move, though not all would be able to express themselves overtly due to political compulsions.

However, environmentalists hold a totally opposite view on the issue. Despite insistent demands from citizens groups for many years now, State Governments and local bodies often grant sanction for large projects without assessing the infrastructure available, and the possible repercussion on both infrastructure and the urban environment, says Sunita Dubey of the Environmental Justice Initiative.

"The failure to forecast, plan for, anticipate and remedy the deleterious impact of large urban development has clearly led to the present mess we find our cities in. Choked roads, overflowing gutters, dirty rivers, urban smog and a consequent decrease in the quality of life of urban residents," the NGO said in a letter addressed to the Environment and Forests Ministry.

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