MoEF’s green flag from a single window

The MoEF,through the single-window system,has also intensified the monitoring process and is also holding supervisory meetings regularly.

At the September 20 meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM),set up to resolve the ‘go,no-go’ issue,MoEF officials said that the system has been established at three levels — district,state and the Centre.

The MoEF said that the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) — set up to recommend project clearances — has been asked to finalise the minutes during the course of the meeting. Minutes on individual case files,however,can be processed within two days from the date of receipt of additional project details.

“We have directed that the recommendation of the FAC should be communicated to the concerned state governments within 15 days from the date of its meeting,” the officials said.

The MoEF has accepted the recommendation of the B K Chaturvedi committee that an incentive mechanism in terms of a ‘special plan’ grants for state forest departments may be set up for early clearance of projects,officials told the GoM.

Of the 54 coal projects awaiting the MoEF’s clearance,the ministry has received compliance report for 18 of them.

Of these 18 projects,the MoEF has accorded Stage-II clearance to 5 projects and has returned 13 projects back to the state governments seeking additional details,they said.

“We have set specific time limits for state and Central governments for expeditious processing of proposals (90 days for states for fresh/renewal cases and 60 days for the Centre) and have asked our regional offices to process cases up to 40 hectares,” the officials added.