Proactive PMO takes control of easing green clearances

In the run up to the 2014 elections, industry and its bigwigs across India wholeheartedly supported the BJP and its PM candidate Narendra Modi and now the NDA government, it seems, is thanking them in return.

Leading from the front, is prime minister Narendra Modi's Office itself that in the last few months has driven changes— relaxations and clarifications—in nearly half of the 60 action points given by the industry regarding green clearance norms.

The slow approval of green clearances was the biggest bone of contention between industry and UPA-II wherein industrial establishments repeatedly projected that that was the reason for projects not taking off and stalling India's growth. In his campaign, Modi had promised to remove all such hurdles and the documents accessed by dna suggest that Modi sarkar is doing exactly that.

Environmentalists and activists, however, feel that many of the changes that industry wants and those which have already been fulfilled by the government are diluting green norms and endangering the environment. They also feel that some communities who are currently dependent on areas being diverted for industrial projects may also feel the heat due to such relaxations.

In August 2014, industry led by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), submitted a list of 60 action points to PM Modi's office so that the "process for environment, forest and wildlife clearances from MoEF can be streamlined". The 60 action points, a copy of which is with dna, elaborated on specific changes in norms and policies that industry wanted from the central government.

The process since then has been driven by PMO's principal secretary Nripendra Misra himself who conducted a meeting, on August 13, of secretaries of department of ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), petroleum and natural gas, coal, road transport and highways, steel, power, shipping and officials from the union cabinet secretariat.

The review meeting led by Misra noted that many projects are pending for a long time for want of clearances "due to cumbersome procedure and difficult mechanism". It was also noted that "many projects were getting derailed or substantially delayed leading to huge cost escalation and non-viability."

In the meeting, the environment ministry was given a list of these 60 action points, expecting action. The MoEF was then recently called to submit an "action taken report" to update the Centre as to how many of the action points submitted by industry have already been worked upon. The documents accessed by dna reveal that by mid-October, 2014, at least 29 points have already been cleared by the union environment ministry.

Since the August meeting, PMO has been constantly seeking updates about action MoEF has taken on those 60 points.

"These 29 points includes some policy changes, some clarifications, office orders and circulars to make thing smoother for industry seeking green clearances. In some cases, MoEF has also issued notifications. Many more are in the offing in coming days," a senior MoEF official told dna.

However, another senior official said, "some of the 29 issues were easier to act upon" but some others in the list of those 60 points could be "legally untenable". But even if this official's arguments about some changes being legally untenable are valid not many in the environment ministry may try to block any change, at

present, especially when the process is being driven from PMO directly.

This official, however, added that even though some demands from industry are unjustifiable, some are quite valid and just. "In some cases, streamlining of some processes was required to drive clear of unnecessary delays," he added.

For instance, MoEF has asked the Forest Survey of India to prepare a forest baseline database to help companies get a clear idea about the forest cover, protected areas and eco-sensitive zones among other things while planning a project.

The 29 decision taken by environment ministry includes advising states to create land banks for compensatory afforestation, online environmental clearance system, , no forest clearance required for carrying out preliminary surveys for projects in wildlife sanctuaries and national parks, go ahead to temporary works in forest lands which do not require tree cutting, no condition by MOEF on CSR related expenditure and others.

MoEF has also cleared that projects which have got CRZ clearance under CRZ notification 1991 do not require separate clearance under CRZ notification 2011. Many of the decisions by MoEF are giving more power to state governments to clear projects but activists feel state governments rarely block projects as every state wants growth.

Other examples of relaxation by MoEF includes doing away with requirement of obtaining stage-I forest clearance before issuance of environmental clearance for linear projects like transmission lines, highways, doing away with requirement of environment clearance for renewal of mining projects, relaxations in obtaining clearance for highway expansion projects and others.

MoEF has also conveyed to members of the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) to not put any conditions which are beyond the control of user agencies (companies driving he project). It has also issued a circular categorising environment clearance conditions for different phases of implementation – pre construction, post construction and life of projects – to help industry steer clear of confusion.

One major decision that came under criticism was giving companies exemption from public hearing in case of coal mining expansion projects upto 5 MTPA.

Environmentalists and activists are, however, not a happy lot. Some feel that some of the changes proposed by industry could go against the rulings of the Supreme Court of India.

"The entire thrust of these 60 points is biased towards economic growth thereby keeping issue of environment protection and rights of people on the backburner. But rights of marginalised people especially tribals and forest dwellers cannot be ignored. That is not the right way to go about it," noted lawyer Sanjay Upadhyay told dna.