The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : ENVIRONMENT AND STATE RIGHTS

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Tuesday, Sep 14, 2004

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

ENVIRONMENT AND STATE RIGHTS

IT WAS ONLY to be expected that the Environment and Forest Ministers from various States should have opposed the Centre's move to arrogate to itself the power to grant environmental clearance for projects. The Union Ministry for Environment and Forests (MoEF) recently received a lot of flak for expanding, through a notification, the scope of the Centre's regulatory role. For instance, construction projects that cost Rs.50 crores or house 1,000 people or produce 50,000 litres of sewage must obtain clearance from the Centre. This immediately brings several urban projects under the purview of the MoEF. Given this high-handed approach, it is no surprise that the promise of reforms in the environmental monitoring system has failed to enthuse the States. They look at the July 7 order of the MoEF as a deliberate encroachment that will only delay the clearance and implementation of most urban projects. An unfortunate consequence of this discord among policy-makers is that the ongoing debate on a new environmental policy has come under a cloud. The States are surely on constitutionally sound ground when they seek greater authority and opportunity to sanction projects that meet the norms.

Aside from the question whether the MoEF notification has been politically directed against specific projects, the Centre has, wittingly or unwittingly, given the impression that only it is capable of taking care of the environment. Long-term experience in India suggests that Central intervention becomes necessary in certain cases; from time to time, environmental groups want the MoEF to intervene and prevent damage from a particular project to a cause dear to them. The progressive role the Indira Gandhi Government played when the Silent Valley came under serious threat — in the event the entire area was safeguarded as a National Park in 1984 — is indisputable. But Central intervention on sound constitutional lines must necessarily be the second line of protection. So long as the Centre and the States ensure that qualified, genuine environmental experts are appointed to the monitoring panels to evaluate the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA), there should be no major problem. The recent MoEF order means that any city that undertakes a construction or housing project worth more than Rs.50 crores — which is really modest in today's costs — must clear the proposal with the Centre. This is unacceptable in a federal political system.

The need of the hour now is a clear set of norms or guidelines to secure environmental clearance from State or Central agencies. At a time when the country is supposed to be moving away from `Inspection Raj' and multiple clearances, a situation where Pollution Control Boards or environmental agencies become instruments of harassment and political vendetta needs to be averted. Reforms must now look at laying down the basic norms to govern all major projects — industrial or otherwise — to secure environmental clearance. The feeling that the clearance process has failed or can be used to veto a particular project on extra-environmental grounds defeats the very purpose of the review. If the collection of primary data, their verification and a fair public hearing can be ensured, there will be enough scope for the people who are affected by any project and environmental experts to voice their concerns. Instead of encroaching on the States' domain, the Centre must focus on putting in place an objective mechanism to ensure compliance with clearance conditions and complete transparency in the system. An independent agency for commissioning EIAs could create the desirable ethical distance between the interested parties and the agencies that evaluate them for damage potential. The MoEF would do well to address this concern, instead of further politicising the environment and stoking up an unnecessary dispute with States.

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