Green min focuses on ease of business
Over the past four years, the environment ministry has expanded its role from being a regulatory ministry to one that promotes “ease of business” and adds value. This approach has both its takers and detractors.
From the freeing Bamboo from government regulation to the green-skills development programme, the thrust is on promoting policies and initiatives that add economic value, with the ministry’s performance review showcasing its ability to attract investment through granting of project approvals.
The time for granting environment clearances has reduced from 600 days to 190 days and for forest clearances from 580 to 180 days between 2007 and 2017, the ministry’s latest performance review said. While the ministry officials say it points to greater efficiency, environmentalists say that it is a sign of the ministry pushing through proposals without proper oversight.
“The mandate of the environment ministry is not to ensure ease of business but environmental governance,” Himanshu Thakkar, a Delhi-based environment activist, said.
Budgetary allocations were slashed by almost a quarter to Rs 1,681 cr in 2015, increased to Rs 2,250 cr in 2016-17, with a substantial increase last year. The allocation remained unchanged at Rs. 2675.42 cr, in 2018-19, despite the ministry announcing major plans to curtail pollution.
The ministry has scored poorly on the pollution front. Of 15 most polluted cities in the world, 14 are in India, yet experts believe the government has not done enough to tackle the crisis. The ministry is set to launch the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) on Environment Day on June 5, but activists say it lacks teeth because there are no targets for air pollution reduction and implementation relies entirely on state action plans.
Despite the US disavowing the Paris climate agreement, the goal set by Narendra Modi to build capacity of 175GW in the renewable energy sector, of which 100 GW, is an ambitious commitment that will check carbon emissions and also bring down pollution because of transition away from dirty fuels like coal.
“Commitment towards movement towards solar energy is a major pathbreaking step,” Rashmi said. “the challenge before India is to make the required energy transition,” said R Rashmi, a former special secretary at the environment ministry.
The railway ministry has seen three different ministers in the past four years but with incumbent Piyush Goyal taking charge last September, safety has become a priority with the public transporter reporting the least number of accidents, 73, in 2017-18.
Safety, efficiency, and infrastructure development have been the three biggest challenges for Indian Railways — even as one of the world’s largest employers tries to ensure that it can do all this profitably, but without hurting the common man too much. Thanks to a ‘Zero Accident’ policy, there has been a 63% reduction in fatalities from 152 in 2013-14 to 57 in 2017-18, according to the Railways. To reduce the number of accidents, massive upgradation work has been undertaken and there is a 50% increase in track renewal, from 2,926 kms in 2013-14 to 4,405 kms in 2017-18.
Railways is also going ahead with a project to modernise its signalling network. Signalling, Goyal said in a pevious interaction , is one key aspect of improving safety. According to Railways, 5,469 unmanned level crossings have been eliminated in the last four years. The average pace of elimination is 20% more than that between 2009 and 2014, the organisation says. But the elimination of the remaining crossing is a challenge, as exemplified by recent accidents. The narrow gauge (track width 762 mm or 610 mm)exists mostly in hilly areas and train speed is very low, so Railways has no plan to eliminate
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