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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Environment ministry wants independent regulator to assess projects -Neha Sethi

Environment ministry wants independent regulator to assess projects -Neha Sethi

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published Published on Mar 11, 2014   modified Modified on Mar 11, 2014
-Live Mint


Move comes in response to direction from Court asking government to create an environment regulator

New Delhi: The environment ministry has recommended the creation of an independent regulator that will evaluate projects seeking environment clearances.

The approval itself will be granted by the ministry.
The ministry's move comes in response to a direction from the Supreme Court on 6 January asking the government to create an environment regulator at the national and state levels by 31 March.

The regulator, the court added, would evaluate projects that come to the ministry for clearance, be responsible for monitoring the compliance of these projects with regulations, and imposing penalties on defaulters.

The government will submit its recommendations in an affidavit to the court, which will hear the ongoing case on the creation of a regulator by the end of the month, according to an official in the ministry who asked not to be identified.

The move to keep the regulator independent is consistent with the way regulatory bodies are structured across other areas.

The stock market, telecom and insurance regulators all operate with a certain level of autonomy from their parent ministries.

The creation of a regulator is expected to make the process of evaluating projects for their environmental impact much more transparent.

Analysts point out that this will address part of the problem-the other part, approvals from the ministry, remains mired in controversy. The ministry's approach has ranged from the obstructionist (which means no approvals are granted) to accommodating (which means all approvals are granted) with no middle ground.

Ritwick Dutta, an environmental lawyer, said that the most important issue is the structure of the regulator that the environment ministry is proposing.
"It also needs to be made clear whether the regulator will do appraisal of projects on a full-time or part-time basis. By the definition of a regulator, it has to be a full-time job. Also, the nature of accountability of members for the decisions they take needs to be clarified," Dutta said.

The ministry wants to make the regulator audit and validate the information provided by a project developer instead of taking it at face value. The official cited above added that the regulator would do this by collating information from several agencies, including the Indian Space Research Organization, Forest Survey of India, and the water department, and use this to verify details provided by the developer.

The court had previously directed the government to create an environment regulator in 2011.

Former environment minister Jairam Ramesh put out a draft document to establish a regulator in the form of an authority called the National Environment Assessment and Monitoring Authority in August 2011.

Based on the 2011 document, the apex court said that the current EIA (environmental impact assessment) and CRZ (coastal regulation zone) clearances rely predominantly on the data provided by the project developer.

The official quoted above said that if the regulator has to be autonomous, then it is important for it to be financially independent too. "It can't be dependent on the ministry and needs to raise its own resources."

A fee from project developers seeking appraisal could be one source of revenue, he added.

The official said that a new law will be required to create a regulator with the power to penalize companies.
Although the outgoing government cannot enact laws with the polls having been declared, it still has to follow the directions of the Supreme Court.

It is likely that the court may suggest a course of action based on the ministry's affidavit.
That, and enacting the required legislation, will be the problem of the new government.


Live Mint, 11 March, 2014, http://www.livemint.com/Politics/zyFYPwy2fyEDxLUjvcXK3M/Environment-ministry-wants-independent-regulator-to-assess-p.html


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