Upload on website project nod orders: NGT to MoEF

“We hereby direct the MoEF to ensure its website is always in working order and shall be positively accessible to the public at large to enable any person to download the requisite information instantaneously,” added the green panel,saying the orders should be on the website at least for 90 days.

It also asked the ministry to maintain a public notice board in its premises,including its regional offices,to display the orders of environmental clearance for a period of at least 30 days.

“Orders communicated and displayed shall be complete,particularly in relation to the environmental conditions and safeguards,and proper records of the order being uploaded on the website and its placement on the public notice board of the MoEF shall be maintained by MoEF in normal course of its business,” the NGT said.

The project proponent,in its name,NGT said,shall publish about the clearance granted to the project along with environmental conditions and safeguards in two local newspapers of the district or state where the project is located,besides displaying on its website permanently.

“The Project Proponent shall also submit the copies of the environmental clearance to the heads of the local bodies,panchayats and municipal bodies of that district,” said the tribunal,adding it will submit copy of the environmental clearance to the department concerned of the state government,which in turn shall display this on its website and also on a public notice board.

NGT’s directives came while clarifying that an appeal cannot be dismissed summarily on the ground of delay since the period of limitation of 30 days for challenging clearances shall be computed only from the date when an approval is effectively communicated to the public by any of the above-mentioned modes.

“The date on which the order of environmental clearance is communicated to the public at large shall be the date from which the period of limitation shall reckon as contemplated under Section 16 of the NGT Act,” it ruled while agreeing to hear on merits an appeal by a Northeast-based organisation ‘Save Mon Region Federation’.

Challenging a clearance for construction of 780 mw Naymjang Chhu Hydroelectric Project in Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh,it had claimed appeal was delayed since the order on clearance was not timely made available to the Federation.