Govt to cut red tape in green clearance for projects

In a bid to boost the economy, the Environment Ministry plans to speed up green clearances for projects requiring up to 40 hectares of forest land through newly created regional empowered committees (REC) in its regional offices.

Though a draft policy for accelerating forest clearance was prepared by the previous UPA government, it is being implemented now. “More than 90 per cent of proposals seeking forest clearance will be disposed off by the regional offices,” Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said here on Tuesday.

This excludes mining and hydroelectric projects and regularisation of encroachments, said S S Garbyal, director general of forest and special secretary in the ministry.
The Union Ministry of Environment and Forest has regional offices in Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Bhopal, Shillong, Lucknow and Chandigarh.

In each of these offices, there will be a regional empowered committee, headed by the additional principal chief conservator of forests and having three non-official experts on forestry and two state government representatives to screen and approve projects requiring diversion of up to 40 hectares of forest land.

The draft rules have been sent to the Law Ministry for vetting before publication in the official gazette.

As early as 2011, the Supreme Court ordered the ministry to prepare a comprehensive policy for inspection, verification and monitoring, besides covering other procedures relating to grant of forest clearances and identification of forests, in consultation with the states as forests fall under the concurrent list.

The RECs have also been asked to grant forest clearance for linear projects like road, rail, canal, transmission lines and pipelines, most of which are of public utility and do not require large tracts of forest land. Norms have been relaxed for speedy construction of roads and other developmental projects in 117 districts hit by Left wing extremism.

Javadekar said he would release Rs 30,000 crore to the states from the compensatory afforestation fund (CAMPA) after obtaining Supreme Court nod. A draft order has been filed before the top court seeking its approval. The government promises to release 95 per cent of CAMPA fund to the states.

The fund was created on the direction of the top court, which asked industrial houses to deposit money against the forest land they would be requiring for their projects, which in turn could be utilised by the government for planting trees in degraded forest areas.

The UPA government twice attempted to launch a Green India mission using the CAMPA fund, but the project never took off.