FW: Endorse Appeal to Prime Minister of India to stop amendment to EIA Notification 2006

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---------- Forwarded message ----------

ESGINDIA <esg

22 Mar 2009 17:29

[ESG-LIST] Endorse Appeal to Prime Minister of India to stop

amendment to EIA Notification 2006

esglist, bangalore_issues

 

Dear Friends,

 

The appeal to the Prime Minister of India to stop the amendment to

the EIA Notification has been widely supported. We will be faxing

this letter to the PM later today. A compilation of the endorsements

will be available soon on the ESG website: www.esgindia.org

 

In case you have not yet endorsed the appeal and wish to do so,

please email your endorsements (with Name, Organisation, and Address)

to esg (please retain the subject line as in this email).

Alternatively, you could endorse the appeal online at:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/eianotification2009

 

We enclose the release made last week once more for your ready

reference.

 

Sincerely

 

ESG Team

 

for Campaign for Environmental Justice - India

 

 

 

REQUEST YOUR ENDORSEMENT TO AN URGENT APPEAL TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF

INDIA

 

Dear Friends,

 

On behalf of Campaign for Environmental Justice - India, we request

you to sign on an appeal to the Prime Minister of India urging him to

direct the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), of which he is

incharge, to immediately stop a comprehensive retrograde amendment to

the Environment Impact Assessment Notification - 2006. MoEF in a

notification issued recently proposes to amend the EIA Notification in

such a manner that it will negate the very purpose of the

Notification, besides compromising human rights of hundreds of project

affected communities and the ecological security of India.

 

It is striking to note that amendment is proposed at the time of

General Elections, and that the beneficiaries are the some of the

largest corporate houses involved in mining, petrochemicals,

manufacturing, construction, infrastructure development, dam building,

etc. All of these sectors are highly polluting and environmentally

destructive and the benefit of a weak environmental regime, including

exemptions from compliance with significant provisions of

environmental regulatory procedures, would help these sectors save

thousands of crores in monetary terms alone. In effect therefore,

the proposed amendments amount to the extension of a largesse from the

State to highly profit making industrial and infrastructure sectors.

 

It is well known that corporate houses fund political parties and

have consistently demanded and lobbied for a weak environmental

clearance regime, including exemptions. This is exactly what is now

proposed by the move to amend the EIA Notification (which is anyway

very weak).

 

The Election Commission of India has a Code of Conduct for political

parties which requires that a Party in power should not initiate

significant shifts in policies, schemes and regulatory practices that

may secure benefits for some sectors and amount to the extention of

largesse of the State. The timing of the proposed amendments and the

proposed changes in law leave little doubt about the possibility that

the UPA Government at the Centre may have initiated these reforms to

secure support of benefiting corporates to its party coffers.

 

The Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is incharge of MoEF. We

have enclosed an appeal to him highlighting our concerns urging him to

direct MoEF to immediately announce that the proposed amendments are

kept in abeyance till such time a new Government has taken charge at

the Centre. This letter is enclosed and is self-explanatory.

 

We request you to endorse this letter, and also to circulate it

amongst various networks for support. We will fax this letter with

your endorsements to the Prime Minister of India, and send a copy to

all political parties, the Election Commission of India and the media

on Monday, 23 March 2009. .

 

You are requested therefore to endorse the letter by noon on Monday.

Subsequent endorsements will also be accepted and forwarded

appropriately.

 

You may email your endorsements providing (full name, organisation

and address, and optionally a brief comment) to esg

(Please keep the subject line above intact to help us sort email).

You can also sign online and leave comments at:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/eianotification2009

 

We thank you for your cooperation and support as always.

 

Yours sincerely,

Leo F. Saldanha, Bhargavi S. Rao, Nandini Chami, Sruthi Subbanna, K.

R. Mallesh, Divya Ravindranath

Environment Support Group, Bangalore

 

for Campaign for Environmental Justice - India

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

APPEAL TO PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA

 

CAMPAIGN FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE - INDIA

 

Dr. Manmohan Singh

Prime Minister of India

(i/c) Union Ministry of Environment and Forests

South Block, Raisina Hill,

New Delhi,

India-110 011.

Telephone: 91-11-23012312

Fax: 91-11-23019545 / 91-11-23016857

 

19 March 2009

 

Reg.: MoEF Notification proposing an amendment to the EIA Notification

- 2006, offering various concessions to project developers, is in

violation of Code of Conduct of Election Commission

 

Respected Sir,

 

We address you in your capacity as a Member of the Union Cabinet

incharge of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF).

 

As you are aware, your Ministry has proposed a major amendment to the

Environment Impact Assessment Notification - 2006 (EIA Notification -

2006) by way of Notification S.O. 195 (E) issued on 19 January 2009.

Following the closure of the public commenting period of 60 days, MoEF

proposes to go ahead with the amendments anytime now.

 

The EIA Notification - 2006 requires that projects that cause

pollution, displacement, destruction of natural resources, etc., be

they in the nature of expansion or as greenfield ventures, must go

through a series of clearance steps as per standards and with the

prior consent of a variety of statutory agencies, both at the State

and Central levels, as applicable. The procedures laid down require

project developers to comply with various national legislations such

as the Environment Protection Act, Forest Conservation Act, Wildlife

Protection Act, Water and Air (Control of Pollution) Act, and a range

of international treaties, in particular the Rio Declaration of 1992.

In addition a variety of legal principles that are part of the rubric

of Indian law, such as Polluter Pays Principle, Doctrine of Public

Trust, Precautionary Principle, etc., are to be adhered to when

advancing any developmental project. Failure to comply with the

procedures laid down in the EIA Notification is a criminal offence

punishable under the Environment Protection Act, 1986 and related

criminal procedure laws.

 

The Amendment Notification, accessible only on the website of the

Ministry (in English and Hindi alone), proposes a series of amendments

to the EIA Notification - 2006 which will significantly weaken, even

negate, the role of the Ministry and other statutory agencies in

reviewing the environmental and social impacts of a variety of high

impact and polluting projects. In addition, the amendment proposes to

grant a range of exemptions from mandatory statutory provisions of

applicable environmental law for upto three years. There is also an

extraordinary and clearly illegal concession offered to polluters who

simply have to declare through a 'self certification' that they cause

no additional pollution and thus escape from the need to secure

environmental clearance! In a country which is known for its gross

failure in enforcement of environmental regulations, and where there

is no competent administrative and regulatory infrastructure to

independently review compliance with law, this is certain to open the

floodgates to environmental destruction and destabilisation of

thousands of project affected communities across India. The frequent

expose of corporate fraud, even amongst leading companies, cause great

discomfort when we consider the consequences of such illegal

concessions.

 

An indicative list of the beneficiaries of the concessions proposed

include shipping, dredging and port development, building and

construction sector, area development projects, special economic

zones, mining, petrochemical sector, modernisation of airports,

expansion of all sorts of manufacturing industries, etc. Without doubt

each and every one of these sectors have the potential of causing

extensive damage to our environment and society, sans effective

regulation.

 

One of the reasons offered for granting such sweeping concessions is

that the Ministry failed to create statutory environmental monitoring

and clearances agencies, such as the State Environment Impact

Assessment Authorities and State Expert Appraisal Committees, in

several states since the enactment of the EIA Notification - 2006.

Astonishingly, the failure to institute appropriate regulatory

infrastructure is now being offered as a reason to comprehensively

weaken, even negate, India's environmental regulatory framework.

 

Nowhere in the history of environmental regulation in the world have

such sweeping concessions been accorded by any Government at any point

in time. In fact, such a move is likely to be criticised globally as

extending unfair advantage to Indian industry by lowering globally

acceptable environmental standards for production, a factor that would

weigh heavily against India's standing in the climate change

negotiations.

 

All this considered, Sir, we find the reasons cited for the amendment

and the timing of the proposed amendments quite specious. Your

Government was well aware that its term in office was coming to a

close when this Amendment Notification was issued in January 2009, and

that too by a Ministry directly under your supervision. The

concessions proposed by way of this Amendment Notification, besides

being illegal and destructive of democratic decision making,

constitute a largesse of the State to the beneficiary industries and

infrastructure project developers. The monetary value alone would run

into thousands of crores for beneficiaries while severely compromising

our ecological security.

 

It is widely known now that many leading political parties are major

beneficiaries of corporate grants. This proposed amendment amounts to

your Government taking advantage of its position to harness much

needed resources for elections by offering such astounding and clearly

illegal concessions that attack the very edifice of environmental

regulation in India.

 

With this in view, we urge you to immediately direct your Ministers of

State in charge of Environment and Forests, and the Secretary of the

Ministry of Environment and Forests, to issue a public announcement

stating that the proposed Amendment has been kept in abeyance till

such time a new Government is in power and is able to take a fresh and

independent decision on this matter.

 

We make this fervent request in light of the Code of Conduct issued by

the Election Commission of India, wherein it is clearly and

categorically stated that no significant change in existing policy,

scheme or programme of the State is allowed at the time of elections.

Conformance with these guidelines are critical to ensuring a

Government in power does not abuse its executive privileges to

advantage its party at the time of elections. The proposed amendment

to the EIA Notification, being a subordinate legislation, is clearly

within the realm of the executive power of the State and thus

constitutes a fit case for application of the aformentioned Code of

Conduct.

 

We do hope you will initiate action in this regard with due dispatch.

Any failure to initiate such action will compel us to move the matter

before the Election Commission of India for effective and appropriate

action.

 

Thank you for your cooperation and support.

 

Yours truly,

 

For Campaign for Environmental Justice - India

 

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