<p>Companies planning mines, dams and developmental projects on forest land should be given stern punishment if they furnish false information or misrepresented facts while seeking the Environment Ministry’s approval, a high-level panel has proposed.<br /><br /></p>.<p>This can be achieved by introducing a new law on the concept of “utmost good faith” in environment management that needs to be followed by everybody seeking diversion of forest land for their projects.<br /><br />ure that the applicant is “legally responsible” for his/her statements as he/she would be “severely penalised” for deliberate falsehood, misrepresentation or suppression of facts, says the panel, headed by former Cabinet Secretary T S R Subramanian.<br /><br />The committee reviewed six green laws, which were considered stumbling blocks in executing development projects and submitted its report to the environment minister Prakash Javadekar.<br /><br />The report has not been made public but the minister said the government would decide on the panel’s recommendations after an inter-ministerial consultation.<br /><br />Among several other measures, the panel recommended estimating a project's “environment reconstruction cost” too, which would be dovetailed with the project cost. The reconstruction cost could later be realised as a cess or duty during the lifetime of a project.</p>
<p>Companies planning mines, dams and developmental projects on forest land should be given stern punishment if they furnish false information or misrepresented facts while seeking the Environment Ministry’s approval, a high-level panel has proposed.<br /><br /></p>.<p>This can be achieved by introducing a new law on the concept of “utmost good faith” in environment management that needs to be followed by everybody seeking diversion of forest land for their projects.<br /><br />ure that the applicant is “legally responsible” for his/her statements as he/she would be “severely penalised” for deliberate falsehood, misrepresentation or suppression of facts, says the panel, headed by former Cabinet Secretary T S R Subramanian.<br /><br />The committee reviewed six green laws, which were considered stumbling blocks in executing development projects and submitted its report to the environment minister Prakash Javadekar.<br /><br />The report has not been made public but the minister said the government would decide on the panel’s recommendations after an inter-ministerial consultation.<br /><br />Among several other measures, the panel recommended estimating a project's “environment reconstruction cost” too, which would be dovetailed with the project cost. The reconstruction cost could later be realised as a cess or duty during the lifetime of a project.</p>
