The industrialists are unhappy and so are the environmentalists. At least in this regard the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MEF) has been able to do a balancing act by making the two traditional rivals equally dissatisfied.

Both have violent disagreements over the pace and methodology of giving clearance to industrial and infrastructure projects coming up in the country. While the industry is upset over the delay in getting a clearance from the MEF, the environmentalists feel that MEF does not do an efficient job of assessing the environmental impact of a new project.

But the fact is that basic system and method of evaluation is so flawed that it is unlikely to make any lobby happy. As the six environment appraisal committees (EAC) are largely stuffed with retired bureaucrats and politicians, they are not equipped to do a sound technical evaluation of the impact of a project on environment. They are also amenable to pressure.Nobody, not even the greens, are in favour of holding up a project without any reason. What everybody agrees about is that there is an urgent need for creating an efficient and quick way of environmental impact assessment. Says environmentalist Bittu Sahgal ``The EACs should be technical and independent bodies which are bound to take decisions within a specific time period.'' The solution might well lie in refurbishing the whole set up and leaving the decisions to trained scientists and experts rather than bureaucrats. At present there are barely one or two scientists attached to each committee (which has 12 to 16 members) and they are also required to do the secretarial work for the committees. Unless the EACs' credibility and authority is established all projects will get delayed. If not by the EAC, then by some green lobby which does not have faith in the EACs. The committees should be taken out of the purview of the ministry, and a statutory body formed to clear these projects.

Several important projects are therefor stuck and have become cannon-fodder for political battles as happened in the case of the Dabhol power project.Among the projects awaiting clearance or locked into court cases is Tisco's mammoth 10 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) steel plant proposed in Orissa, Cogentrix power plant coming up near Mangalore, the Rs 5,000 crore 11 five-star hotel project proposed by the Delhi Development Authority near Vasant Kunj. Most of these have been stuck for over the four month period stipulated to the environment ministry for granting clearance.Recently the government further decentralised process for granting clearance in order to avoid delays in clearing power, ports and other coastal projects. This has raised the hackles of many environmentalists as they say it did not address the problems of delay; rather it just handed over the whole process to the state authorities who are only too eager to see the project of the ground. On the other hand, the ministry also made public hearing mandatory for all projects, which the industry says will further delayed the approval process. As proof sources say that since this was done, not a single new industrial project has come for clearance since April. S.K. Jain of the environment management division in the Confederation of Indian Industry says delay is primarily is because of the public hearing clause. The industry is supposed to advertise in the local papers which attracts local politicians and non-governmental organisations. Now with the small scale sector also covered in this scheme, process has become to unwieldy.

Says Sahgal who is a member in an EAC, "When some of us raise tough, inconvenient issues such as `What will happen to the traditional fisherfolk when the thermal plants effluents and fly ash ruin their fishing grounds?' we are looked on as impediments to the efficient task of nation building. `When we ask why the East Coast Road has been widened to ten metres when the clearance specifically states seven metres?' we are told, 'This is a matter for the ministry to take up and we are monitoring the project.'"In the case of the East Coast Road, a highway along the eastern coast, when clearance was revoked and the same was pointed out the officials responded by saying that: "But we have now re-examined the matter and there is no problem.", he added. When photographs of tree-cutting are sent to the MEF (in violation of the conditions of clearance), the response is a stony silence. Meanwhile the East Coast road continue to be widened and even the first second phase work is about to start (without environmental clearance) so that no delays obstruct the speedy execution of the project.

Experience in other committees, like the one to clear river valley project are no different. In a report prepared sometime ago it was found that some 90 per cent of all projects cleared till then had not fulfilled their conditions of clearance. The MEF, of course, refused to take any action against the erring project authorities or state governments. These projects include not just the infamous Sardar Sarovar and Tehri dams, but also others like Srisailam, Telugu Ganga, Upper Krishna, and Jaisamand. The green lobby has also been liberally using the courts. Last year former Union environment minister and animal rights' campaigner Maneka Gandhi filed a case in the Supreme Court alleging that clearance had been given to nearly 1,500 projects even though they had not met the prescribed standards. As a test case, the Court ordered the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) to re-examine five major projects. The report prepared by NEERI found all projects to be wanting in one way or another. At present, proposals in 29 categories of industries above an investment of Rs 50 crore are examined by EACs set up by the ministry. Most of these six committees (transport, tourism, miscellaneous; nuclear; mining; river valley; industry and thermal) are staffed by retired bureaucrats and sundry politicians as appointments are made on the whims and fancies of the minister in office. Some EACs do have ``independent environmentalists'' but that is more the exception.

At one time the expert EAC committee on industry was headed by PM Abraham, former secretary to the government; the group on power is headed by R Vasudevan, former power secretary; and committee for mining projects was headed by Madho Singh, former Rajasthan minister in charge of mining.Even when projects are cleared, they are more often than not granted ``conditional clearance'' subject to several conditions being met. In her petition to the Supreme Court, Maneka Gandhi, former environment minister had noted: ``The novel technique of granting `conditional environmental clearance' on the basis of preliminary reports, rapid environment impact assessment (EIA) and cursory site inspections and the absence of any follow up action and transparency in decision-making, is large responsible for the rapidly degrading environmental situation in the country.''

This case spurred the government to enact another legislation which paved the way for setting up the National Environment Appellate Authority. With a complaint against any clearance to projects will have to come hear first and only after a decision here can an appeal be made to the Supreme Court.Environment minister Saifuddin Soz claims that this will make the industry "totally transparent" as all the hearing would be in public. In addition, the ministry has also established a new cell for monitoring compliance of the provisions stipulated while granting conditional clearance to projects. While the authority is yet to start functioning, both environmentalists and industrialists remain apprehensive.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.