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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Independent regulator for environmental clearances soon, says Manmohan

Independent regulator for environmental clearances soon, says Manmohan

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published Published on Jul 24, 2011   modified Modified on Jul 24, 2011

-The Hindu

 

‘Will work on full-time basis to evolve more objective standards of scrutiny'

Amid criticism that industrialisation and economic growth were getting blocked due to delay in granting “environmental clearances” to industries, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday announced the government's plans to set up an independent regulator for giving environmental clearances.

“We also hope to establish an independent regulator — the National Environment Appraisal and Monitoring Authority — soon. This authority could lead to a complete change in the process of granting environmental clearances. Staffed by dedicated professionals, it will work on a full-time basis to evolve better and more objective standards of scrutiny,” said Dr. Singh.

The Prime Minister was speaking at the valedictory of an international seminar on ‘Global Environment and Disaster Management,' organised by the Supreme Court.

Dr. Singh called for establishing an effective legal and regulatory framework to protect the environment “but without bringing back the hated license permit raj of the pre-1991 period.”

Praising the Indian judiciary he said, “But for the enduring wisdom of our judiciary, we would not have the bulk of what we proudly call environmental jurisprudence.”

He underlined need to design a system of intellectual property rights, which provided adequate incentives to invest in the development of new environment friendly technologies and at the same time ensured that these technologies were available to poor countries at affordable cost.

On the government's efforts in protecting the environment, he said that in the last four years it formulated a national agenda for environmental protection to meet the challenges of disaster management and climate change. “We have a target for greening 10 million hectares of forest land to increase incomes of the poor through a national Green India Mission.”

Work of generating over 20,000 MW of solar energy by 2020 was on. “Our mission for enhanced energy efficiency will reduce substantially the need for capacity addition. Our mission for sustainable habitat will develop standards for green buildings, which we intend to make integral to our municipal laws.”

The government's mission on sustainable agriculture and water conservation would increase productivity of dry land agriculture as well as increase the efficiency of water use. “All these steps will cumulatively lead us to a low carbon growth path. These are steps that we have decided to take on our own as responsible global citizens.”

Dr. Singh praised the new “comprehensive law” that established a Specialised Tribunal for settlement of a “broad spectrum of environmental cases of civil nature.” India “had joined a handful of forward looking countries to have such a dedicated mechanism. This tribunal has started functioning and I expect it will help to reduce the workload of our courts,” he said.

Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia said the concept of environmental protection should be a continuous process in the context of what constituted clean, decent and viable environment. “It is the case of applied ethics, which governments and authorities have to look into.”

He also suggested to the Environment Ministry to take into account a regulatory mechanism for enforcement of environmental issues. “India is a vast country. We can't just rely upon the report of project proponent. The Ministry of Environment and Forests alone cannot have this appraisal in some of the cases,” Justice Kapadia felt.

# Calls for establishing effective legal framework to protect environment

# Underlines need for designing a system of intellectual property rights

The Hindu, 25 July, 2011, http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2291310.ece


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