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Placing EIA in the context of the recent Amendments like Scraping of 370 and citizenship amendments bill, it’s not less surprising, yet, evident that the second NDA government is in a move to fortify itself against all voices of difference, be it the opposition or the public, and an unchecked system is in rise.
Politics and power as the French intellect Michael Foucault states are at a time inseparable from and permeating into everything that exist in the world. The new draft of EIA 2020 is no different in its power/political niche that it even reaches out to nullify the very idea of the protection of nature for the fine exertion of its agendas. In fact the EIA in a global level has an extensive history of power politics which gained momentum during the 1970s with the Neoliberalisation policies of the United States and Thacherist UK. Even though, the true intention behind setting up a global standard of ecological conservation was the demand of the time, EIA which came as a response to that quite often turned out to be an instrument of governmental control over the ecological matters of a state. Moreover, the capitalist industry which somehow lured into every form of state machinery found the EIA as a better way to legalise their illegal and hazardous projects. Through international conventions the global powers implemented the notions of EIA in third world nations like India and made it mandatory for yielding the international Aids from institutions like IMF.
India soon after opening its economy to the world in 1991 and embracing the LPG constituted EIA in 1994 to cater to the environmental requirements of neoliberal economic arrangements. The proposed EIA on the concept level was a manifold to scientifically analyse environmental feasibility of various projects and its likely impact on the environment. EIA also provided a provision for public consultation which, hailed to be a mantle of participatory democracy, granted a registry for public opinion to be heard and considered on matters of environmental concern. From the time of its implementation, EIA as the apex regulation on environmental clearance has been booked by the environmental activists and concerned bodies for its inefficiency calling it a rubber stamp which allegedly has a low percentage of rejection rate.
Despite all these unresolved concerns, MoEF&CC has come up with the new EIA draft 2020, which for many reasons has raised large scale dissent from both the general public and environmental activists.
The 2006 Amendment to EIA, also hardly introspective on the functional inefficacy of the regulation and thus the rules fell cramped in the hands of stakeholders. When the NDA government assumed office in 2014, as expected and has witnessed already with other laws, there were attempts to refurbish the EIA. In an initiation towards this, the MoEF&CC issued an order on March 14, 2017 to enable appraisal for projects involving violation on a one time settlement (ex post facto Environmental Clearance) which later was challenged by the supreme court in April 1, 2020 stating that “The concept of an ex post facto EC is in derogation of the fundamental principles of environmental jurisprudence”. Despite all these unresolved concerns, MoEF&CC has come up with the new EIA draft 2020, which for many reasons has raised large scale dissent from both the general public and environmental Activists.
There are mainly four amendments which require critical scrutiny. The concept of Ex-Post-facto clearance- being one of the most bizarre notions among them suggests that any industrial projects which violate the norms and continue to function can seek for an Ex-Post-facto environmental clearance. It also suggests that modification up to 25% is exempted form EC when the public consultation is not mandatory for modifications up to 50%. The draft also reduces the public consultation time into 20 days from one month. The draft also suggests a category of projects (B2) which are exempted from the EIA. The B2 list which is furnished with strategic projects of national importance raises the apprehension that it will cause large scale environmental degradation since it excludes massive road and pipeline projects, and mining in reserved forests from the public check. Moreover, the draft fails to specify any standard for assigning such privileged status for a project may lead to lavish abuse of the law in the hands of manipulative governance. Most surprisingly, the draft rules out the citizens right to report the violation and non-compliance by stating that “the cognizance of violation shall be made on the suo moto application of the project proponent and government authority”. By scrambling the rights of the public to voice their dissent and reserving the right to litigation to the violator, the government jabs on the face of democracy and its constitutional dignity.
Placing EIA in the context of the recent Amendments like scraping of 370 and Citizenship Amendments Bill, it’s not less surprising, yet, evident that the second NDA government is in a move to fortify itself against all voices of difference, be it the opposition or the public, and an unchecked system is in rise. When the nation grieves over the subsequent natural disasters; the floods all over India, and the industrial wrecks; the Visakhapatnam gas leak or Assam oil and Gas Leak 2020, legalizing EIA 2020 will be like putting India’s long standing environmental activism in the scaffold. In the MoEF&CC’s attempt to place the draft for public review at a time when the nation pawned its eyes on the pandemic that gains momentum by and by, a conspired interest of the policy violators and a favoring government is well manifested. Thus it is the public’s collective responsibility to react to the Environment Impact Assessment Draft 2020 which is nothing but a ruthless abrogation of Environmental Justice.
Cover Illustration by Sébastien Thibault
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