Green lobby against new regulation authority
Union minister for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh’s decision to set up a new authority, “National Environmental Protection Authority (NEPA”), to regulate all environmental norm, has been sharply criticised by the green lobby. Speaking at a national workshop to discuss the setting up of this autonomous body, a majority of participants told Mr Ramesh that the proposed regulation would not improve the quality of environmental governance.
While Mr Ramesh felt that the NEPA would have the power to set up standards, grant clearances as well as monitor the compliance of these clearances, most experts felt it would fail to meet the increasing environmental challenges.
“Lack of capacity in the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and state pollution boards will not be solved by the creation of NEPA because all it will do is transfer the existing problems to a new institution. Problems of implementation can only be resolved by strengthening of the existing institutes,” said Chandra Bhushan from Centre for Science and Environment.
Mr Bhushan pointed out that since 1994, the ministry has brought out 14 amendments to the environment impact assessment notification and 21 amendments to the coastal regulation zone notification of 1991 in order to provide expeditious clearances, and yet a great deal was left to be desired on the ground.
Ms Kanchi Kohli, a member of the Kalpavriksh Environment Action Group, was equally critical of NEPA. She said the proposed legislation did not explain how it would do away with the deficiencies in the existing system. “It looks like that NEPA is going to inherit the legacy of a faulty environment decision-making regime which had churned out almost dysfunctional CPCB and SPCBs,” she said.
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