New Delhi: The draft environment impact assessment (EIA) notification does not relax the process of public hearing, but aims to make it more meaningful, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar told senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Thursday.
Javadekar wrote a letter in response to the objections to the draft EIA raised on various occasions by Ramesh, a former Environment Minister and the current chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on science and technology, environment and climate change.
In his response, Javadekar also said that Ramesh publicising his objections and letters was "premature" as the public consultations on the draft EIA were underway.
Ramesh, in his letter to the Environment Minister on July 25, had said that the draft EIA reduces public participation in all steps of the environment clearance process “by lessening the notice period for public hearings and doing away with them for a large category of projects”.
Javadekar said, "Provision of ex-post facto approval to bring all violators under regulatory regime by imposing heavy penalties. Companies cannot be in perpetual unregulated status."
"Every project expansion will require submission of Environmental Management Plan. The draft is not meant for reducing the process of public hearing but making it more meaningful," wrote the Union Minister.