DH Radio | The Lead: Draft EIA takes typical jugaad approach, says Jairam Ramesh

In this episode of The Lead from DH Radio, senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh says what's wrong with the draft EIA rules.

Sagar Kulkarni: What are your objections to the draft EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) Notification 2020?

Jairam Ramesh: Well, fundamentally the draft EIA notification is deeply anti-democratic. It reduces the scope for public hearings. It completely eliminates the role of local communities to bring to the notice of the authorities, violation of environmental rules.

Only government departments, government agencies can now bring to the notice of the ministry violations. Local communities cannot, civil society organisations cannot and a large number of activities have been exempted from the need for environmental impact assessment. So firstly, it's deeply anti-democratic, secondly, I think it's going to have a detrimental impact on public health because if you are going to do away with environmental impact assessment and you have introduced now and you have regularised post-facto approval.

You are basically saying, "Ok, you can set up the project, you need not have clearance, we will regularise for you later after you have paid a fine", so you have opened a window; now you have made it sort of legal and official that you can violate and pay fine later but paying the fine is neither here not there because you have already created conditions for violating the rules. Thirdly, the Central government is taking huge powers of the states.

The states should be appointing state-level impact assessment authority, but here the central government has taken upon itself the responsibility. It's anti-democratic, it's anti-public health and it's anti-co-opertaive federalism. These are the main objections I have...

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