Featured image: A thermal power plant in Haryana. Photo: Vikramdeep Sidhu/Wikimedia Commons.
Continuing its push for ensuring a smoother path for industries in securing environment clearances, the Indian government’s environment ministry is in the process of changing the environment impact assessment (EIA) notification 2006 which governs the process of granting or rejecting environment clearances to industrial and infrastructural projects.
Also read: EIA Legitimised Environmental Destruction. Now, Govt ‘Renovates’ it for the Worst.
The draft, which was unveiled earlier this year in March, has already generated a lot of controversy with environmentalists calling it a serious dilution of the 2006 version. The government had extended the date for public comments on the proposed changes till June 30 after pressure from environmentalists and opposition alike. But now, there is a fresh demand from civil society groups for extending the public consultation time period by three months as the proposed changes would have damaging consequences on the environment and the society.
This article was originally published on Mongabay.