MoEF not Anti-Industry: Secretary

BHUBANESWAR; Faulty baseline information provided by developers in the environment impact assessment (EIA) is a major reason why the industrial and development projects are facing delay or rejection. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) is mulling an authority which will create the baseline data besides playing the role of an independent regulator as announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Addressing a seminar on EIA by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), MoEF Secretary Tishyarakshit Chatterjee on Thursday refuted allegations that MoEF had been largely anti-industry. The rejection rate is barely in the range of 4 to 5 per cent in case of forest clearance whereas for environment clearance, it is about 6 per cent. “Ninety per cent of project proposals are cleared by the Ministry but from time to time, we ask for data and information,” he said. Reeling out statistics, he said, of about 30,000 cases pending forest clearance, 40 per cent are cleared in the first 60 days and 13 per cent in 60 to 120 days. Similarly, 7 per cent cases take about 120 to 180 days while about 25 per cent require more than a year. Similarly, about 170 to 190 environment clearances are issued every month. Chatterjee said the project developers must not trust the baseline  information given by their consultants because five different EIAs give five different informations about one area which is why the Ministry issues stop work order and seeks fresh data. Given the experience, Chatterjee said, the Government must provide the baselines which should be updated every three years and it must be the way forward for EIAs. Suggesting that the new authority will be linked to different agencies, the MoEF Secretary said that it will have the mandate to seek change in the EIAs, formulate disaster management for chemical hazards and coastal plans. Minister for Environment and Forests Debi Prasad Mishra spoke about the problem of fly ash and need of coal washeries in the State. CII, Orissa, Chairman BL Bagra and Chairman of CII Environment Task Force Pradeep Dhobale spoke.