Environment activists are aghast about a proposal that would allow projects, once cleared environmentally, to expand without seeking further clearance.

The Union government is considering amendments to the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification of 2006. One of the changes proposed is to do away with the need to seek additional clearance for expansion and modernisation; the project authority would be given a “self-certification option” .

These revisions, if approved, will be incorporated into the notification by January 2010, state environment secretary Valsa Nair Singh said. “The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) is currently taking feedback from states,” she said.

A Union MoEF official confirmed that the draft amendment was published in January 2009 and the 60-day period for replies from various authorities and the public has passed. He said, “These are only suggestions as of now. The amendments will lapse by January 18, 2010, by which date they must be passed.”

Environmentalists are concerned that the amendment would wreak havoc on the ecology. “The 2006 notification emphasises that a project should make fresh EIA studies and get new environmental clearances for any expansion. A modification would give a free hand to developers who could get environmental clearance for a small project and later apply for expansion,” said Kanchi Kohli of the NGO Kalpavriksh, which recently released an intensive report on the dismal state of government monitoring of environmental clearance conditions after companies complete projects.

“Such an amendment would be the end of our ecology. Already there is a big gap between the pace at which projects are passed and the speed of monitoring. Today, the six regional monitoring offices in the country agree that they are severely inadequate. Two to three scientists per centre are responsible for overseeing a total of 6,000 projects,” Kohli said.

... contd.