Draft EIA disgraceful and dangerous, says Rahul
nNEW DELHI: The union environment ministry has received well over 100,000 comments and suggestions from people on the draft environment impact assessment (EIA) notification of 2020 that some green activists say could severely undermine environmental regulation in India.
“The number of comments is way over a lakh. We are still compiling the submissions. We have been overwhelmed with the number of comments,” said a senior environment ministry official who declined to be identified. The feedback was based on the count as of Friday. The deadline for submission of feedback is Tuesday.
Environmental activists have been critical of the draft EIA notification, which was published by the environment ministry in March, because of a number of contentious clauses that they say could weaken environmental regulation.
“The government itself will turn its policy interventions into horror stories on the ground if projects are not put through rigourous, EIA procedures in an impartial manner,” said Manju Menon, legal researcher at Centre for Policy Research
The notification became a potential issue for a political debate on Sunday when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the notification was “not only disgraceful, it is dangerous.
#Indianotforsale was also trending on Twitter which had people drawing attention to concerns over the draft notification and demanding it be withdrawn. Not only does it have the potential to reverse many of the hardfought-for gains that have been won over the years in the battle to protect India’s environment, it could potentially unleash “widespread environmental destruction and mayhem across India,” Gandhi wrote on a social media platform.
“This EIA 2020 draft is a disaster. It seeks to silence the voice of communities who will be directly impacted by the environmental degradation it unleashes. I urge every Indian to rise up and protest against it. Our youth, who have always been at the forefront of every battle to protect our environment, must take up this cause and make it their own. A fight to protect our environment cuts across political and ideological beliefs,” Gandhi wrote, adding: “If nothing else, the recent Covid19 pandemic has shown us how fragile human life is. For millions of
Indians already living on the edge, the environment isn’t an abstract term, but a life and livelihood issue. If EIA 2020 is notified by the government, the long-term consequences of the widespread environmental degradation will be catastrophic for us and future generations of Indians.”
Environment ministry officials in the EIA division said it will take a long time for the ministry to look into every comment before taking a call on notifying the draft.
HT sought a response from Union minister Javadekar through the Press Information Bureau, but didn’t receive a reply until late Sunday. Environment secretary RP Gupta also did not respond to HT’S calls for a response on Sunday.