JAI DUGGAR
A few days earlier, there was a flood at our Environment Minister's place. I'm talking about the flood of emails on the personal email address of our environment minister. An Indian branch of the NGO- Fridays for Future, sent so many emails regarding Environment Impact Assessment draft 2020 that the government got suspicious of whether Pakistan has now resorted to pestering us with emails instead of locusts! What next? The ACP Pradyuman within Javadekar ji came to life And he said, "Delhi Police, ..something is amiss for sure!" And the Delhi Police sent a notice to the company that hosted the website of Fridays for Future. They were sent a notice under the anti terror law- that is UAPA because their "objectionable content" and "terrorist acts" were a threat to Indian peace and sovereignity and they could even be jailed for sending the emails! WHAAAAAAAT?!? A notice under UAPA just for sending emails ? being sent to Jail in exchange for raising questions to the environment minister! Then, Delhi police said that... ..forgive me, for I go astray in anger. After apologizing, they withdrew the notice under UAPA but they sent another notice under the IT Act. What is this EIA draft 2020 all about, that it has become a pain in the neck for the government? and so many websites have been silenced! Why does the government not want to entertain questions about the EIA draft? In this blog, I will unveil the secrets of the EIA draft.The draft provisions are so amusing that it might make you laugh But, beware! Do not laugh! What if UAPA is imposed on you as well?
The government released the Environment Impact Assessment Draft 2020 recently. EIA is a tool to measure the impact of things Say, you construct a new house... So, how much would it cost you (in terms of money)? How much greenery would be destroyed? How much water would be pumped by the bore well? How much would you pay as house tax? And to what extent would your new neighbors be troubled due to this construction? EIA is a tool to find out all of this. Similarly, when a new project is set up for the development of the country, then EIA measures its impact and calculates its environmental, social and economic costs. But this new draft is riddled with issues. Having read the draft, it becomes unclear whether it is to save the environment... or to destroy the environment?!
Problem number 1- Post Facto clearance Tell me something What would happen if a son asks his father for the keys of the car and the father tells him to live his life to the fullest and lets his son to drive on the road without procuring a license for him first At most, some people would get hurt and some would get killed But the son would still reap the benefits of "good days" and "progress", right? As for the license, it can be applied for when the case starts-what's the rush ! Hearing this would cause you to retort- Smash his head! Because, if it concerns someone's life then... no risks should be taken! Well, the new EIA draft 2020 suggests something like this It allows "Post Facto clearance" That is, even if a project has come up without environmental clearance, it can continue its operation The environmental clearance can be obtained later by paying a small fine as long as the project is permissible on that site In the meantime- how is the environment impacted and how many lives are endangered- How does it matter? You should concentrate on the exchange offer- Pay the fine, take the environment clearance Long live my country!
Problem number 2- Self Surrender that is, suo moto declaration of violation According to the EIA draft, if you have flouted the environmental norms, then there are two ways for the government to deal with you The first is the normal route- the government officials will catch you red handed and then you would be in trouble But the second more innovative route is suo moto declaration that is, the violaters would accept their violations themselves before the government and self report them There is no scope for public complaint here The public is better when it is quiet What a joke!? I'm speaking seriously . Hear me out! No! I refuse to believe it! I'm serious- if you don't believe me, then turn to page 29 of the EIA draft and read it for yourself According to the EIA draft 2020, the corporates who have invested crores of money into mega projects would undergo a reawakening of their conscience and they would go to the government to get complaints against themselves filed Meanwhile, having read the draft proposals, the corporates would be like... "Are we fools?" This is akin to a driver forgetting to put on his seatbelt while driving and then he himself walks up to the traffic police and asks for a challan for not wearing the seatbelt Agreed- that some people do things out of stupidity but this draft proposal is akin to expecting a man to go out of his way to bring doom upon himself.
Problem number 3- Exemptions and No entry for public participation Draft EIA 2020 clubs the projects into categories First- there is Category A Then there is Category B which includes... "...Tapsee Pannu and Swara Bhaskar" Kangana, let someone else speak for once! And there's no discussion about nepotism being done here Please stay quiet! There are two types of projects in category B- B1 and B2 All projects of category B2 are exempt from public hearing There would be no hearing no matter how vocal you are about it Neither would the public be apprised of these projects nor would there be any public hearings When the public already believes that "all is well", why should they be burdened with such things? And it's like they say- Old habits die hard This trend of not listening to the public is quite old This trend has been going on for quite some time now It would be carried on here as well, because "vikas" is important. This exempted list includes- Modernization projects, irrigation projects , defense, security, inland waterways, highways, area development projects etc etc The list is not yet over. There is still more to go Along with these projects, there is another clause that has been included- the clause of "strategic projects" The government can declare any project as "strategic" and can take it out of public purview The fact of the matter is- there are some anti nationals hidden amongst the public They have a problem- every time you try and do something good, they appear as a bad omen They'll staright away go and sit in Shaheen Bhagh and start protesting And the public anyway has the same amount of right on information as India has on Galwan valley The weapon named "RTI Act" has already been rendered useless without gunpowder Now, the environment is also being toyed with by putting the "strategic" tag on projects Let us hope that this does not ruin our country and our environment completely!
Problem number 4- Reduction in response time Lesser discussions, lesser hassles It is extremely tough to wait Have you ever waited for a reply after having texted your crush? Have you ever waited for a new series or a new season? "It hurts right here" The response period for the public to any notification of a project in the EIA 2006 was 30 days Now, who wants to wait for a month! We want progress quickly EIA draft 2020 did what nobody else could- the waiting period was made even shorter! It reduced the public response time from 30 days to 20 days It takes 12 months to pass the twelfth boards and that too with a set syllabus and more or less fixed books But here, it is being expected that a mega project proposal would first be understood by the local people who would then imagine its futuristic impacts and calculate the impact on the environment and then a complaint would be registered- all in 30 days- which has now been reduced to 20! It takes 4 days to deposit a 2000 rupee note in a government bank Sometimes their several breaks don't get over and sometimes the passbook machine is broken down! But the impact assessment and response of such a mega project would all be done in 20 days Not to worry- All is well!
The extended validity of Airtel and Jio has got us so hooked that we want to apply this principle everywhere. Because no matter what it is- free coriander or pepsi or environment clearance validity- We want more of it! Draft EIA 2020 gives extended validity to the projects abundantly. The validity of the mining projects have been increased to 50 years from 30 years. Meanwhile, the river valley projects have got an extended validity of 15 years and other projects- 10 years. But that's not it. They now would be required to submit a compliance report every 12 months instead of every 6 months. What is the problem then? Problem? The problem is that if a project is exerting a negative impact on the environment, then it would be impossible to reverse if it is allowed to go on for long. In the language of chemistry, it is called an irreversible reaction. This is why projects have to show compliance reports despite having got an environmental clearance and they need to get their license renewed. It's not that once the clearance has been granted, then we are left to our own will. But if EIA 2020 increases this period and also increases the risk of environmental damage, then we need to Point it out. Stop it and explain it as well. There's another thing that needs mention- The environment ministry, in the period between July 2014 and April 2020 received 2,592 proposals for environmental clearance and out of these, 2,256 were approved.
This means that the clearance percentage of projects is higher than the class 12th percentage of a lot of us. That is a clearance rate of 87%! So, when so many projects were approved even before the EIA draft 2020 being implemented, just calculate... "Don't get into those maths!" Alright! Do not calculate. But it's clear that even before the EIA 2020 draft coming into force the clearance rate is so high. So, then if this draft gets passed then how many trees would be cut. And then your lifespan would be cut. What's new- if the environment is in danger, we would anyway be in danger as well. But there is a ray of hope amongst all the distress. The last straw of a drowning man! And that is that EIA 2020 is still in a draft stage. The government has asked for our feedback on it. The government wanted it done and dusted by June 30th, But the courts woke up from their slumber and the deadline was extended until 11th August. Growth is necessary for a nation. But growth, just for the sake of growth- without taking the damage it would cause into account might be the ideology of a cancer cell. So, that's all for today........
THANK YOU.
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