By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: The Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI) has welcomed the draft EIA Notification, 2020 and it has written its observations to Union Ministry of Environment Forest & Climate Change Secretary R P Gupta.“FIMI, being a responsible and apex industry association of mining and metal industries, supports the draft EIA Notification 2020 and is grateful to the MOEFCC for it. We believe that the draft Notification is a welcome step towards streamlining and rationalizing the Environmental Clearance (EC) process, improve objectivity and transparency alongwith stakeholder participation,” a letter written by FIMI Secretary General RK Sharma to Union Secretary RP Gupta said.
The present EIA Notification, 2006 was effected almost 14 years back w.e.f. 14th September, 2006 and since then several sea changes have happened both globally as well as in India. To keep pace with the evolving environmental issues, ground realities and various Court directions, around 55 amendments to the Notification and 230 Office Memorandums, circulars were issued over the span of 14 years, which has made the EIA Notification, 2006 quite cumbersome, complex and difficult-to-understand by the public and environmental professionals in the country. It is about time that the country has a simple, consolidated and objective EC process and the draft EIA Notification 2020 is a praise-worthy and timely effort by MOEFCC towards this purpose, FIMI said.
“We submit that the draft EIA Notification, 2020 will enable India to improve its environmental protection and adopt stricter monitoring mechanism, while permitting developmental projects to create much needed jobs and economic growth, within the permissible environmental limits. The draft has adopted a ‘carrot and stick approach’ for developmental projects with a focus on ensuring timely compliance, improvement of environmental protection measures and strict penalty to deter violations,” it said.
The process of dealing with violation cases (projects which have started / expanded activity without prior EC) has been in practice since 2010. It has evolved through OMs in 2012 and 2013, Hon’ble High Court of Jharkhand’s judgment dated 28.11.2014, Hon’ble NGT’s order dt. 07.07.2015 and in accordance to the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s judgment dated 13.02.1996 to recover the damages caused due to violation. It is unfair on the part of certain groups to allege the provision of Violation cases as ‘post-facto clearance’ and ‘regularizing the illegal activities’, while the draft Notification will in fact : streamline the existing provisions in line with the Court directions, impose strict penalties and late fee per day to deter violations, and compensate for ecological damage, remediation and economic benefit gained, it said.
“We are thankful to the MOEFCC for the comprehensive and well-defined process to deal with violation cases, which will help in remediation of environmental damages and deterring the violation.The draft Notification has focused on reduction of inordinate delays / processing time without compromising on the quality of the EIA process. It has also clearly distinguished between non-compliance of EC conditions and violations, which will greatly help in reducing related administrative delays and clear understanding by all stakeholders. Reducing the minimum notice period for public hearing from 30 to 20 days is justified, considering the improvements in technology (internet, mobiles) to access information regarding EIA and written comments by the public compared to earlier years when these facilities were uncommon,” it said.
For the existing projects having prior EC, the draft Notification has also facilitated increase in production capacity upto 50% through modernization, which is the need of the hour and will enable India to adopt technological innovation and modernization at par with global industries. As these projects have already undergone EIA/EMP and public hearing, it will save precious time and resources for the stakeholders. All such efforts by the Ministry to reduce ambiguity and improve the process timeline will improve the ease of doing business, getting approvals and enhance investor confidence to invest and create economic and employment opportunities in India. Amending EC validity for mining projects will improve ‘ease of doing mining’. Further, the draft EIA Notification has rightly increased the EC validity for mining projects from 30 years to 50 years / coterminous with lease period, as has been long requested by this Federation to bring EC period at par with lease period in accordance with the MMDR Act, 1957. This is a significant step that will benefit the mining industry and reduce lot of administrative burden and uncertainty in doing mining in India, FIMI said.
“The draft EIA Notification, 2020 has also categorized dump mining as B2, which will result in utilization of dumps, mineral conservation as well as significantly reduce the environmental footprint on the dumps. It is a great step towards adoption of circular economy in the Indian mining sector. FIMI also welcomes various provisions regarding annual compliances with introduction of late fee, categorization of the projects especially in MSME and high-employment sectors as B2 category etc. The draft EIA Notification, 2020 has sought inputs from all stakeholders and has been widely discussed. Based on inputs from the mining and metals industry, FIMI has also shared its inputs/suggestions to improve and further streamline the
draft EIA Notification, 2020.We are sanguine that the MOEFCC would consider the comments / suggestions from all stakeholders based on its merits and then bring out the final Notification. It is a welcome step for the mining sector and the streamlined process in the draft EIA Notification, 2020 will attract major investments, reduce imports and create multiple livelihood opportunities in the country, alongwith necessary environmental protection and effective monitoring mechanism,” FIMI added.
