Half of approved projects violated green norms: CAG

LOOPHOLES Report said violations ranged from untreated sewage discharge to tree cover not maintained and violators not penalised

Illegal withdrawal of ground water, cutting trees without permission, and discharge of untreated waste water were some of the green norm violations by project proponents detected by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

“Environment clearances were granted to project proponents without checking compliance of conditions mentioned in previous environment clearances and recommendations of regional offices,” said the report tabled in Parliament on Friday.

Depicting several loopholes in the ministry’s approval process, the report, based on approval given to 4,534 projects between 2008 and 2015, accused the ministry of failing to monitor its own approvals conditions to protect the environment.

More than half of the requisites for approval termed as general and specific conditions were not met by project implementers and the ministry failed to take strict action against them, the report said, naming several public enterprises such as the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) as violators.

“No penalty has been imposed on even a single violator in the last two years,” was the stark remark of the government’s auditor in its first appraisal of the ministry’s environmental clearance process. It hauled the ministry up for failing to delegate penalty powers to its regional offices that monitor implementation of approval conditions.

Under the Environment Protection Act (EPA), the ministry is