New Delhi: On the last date of submission of complaints and disagreements over the new draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) 2020 notification, Congress party called it an 'anti-people' and 'anti-environment' act of the Central Government.
While addressing a press conference over the matter, on Tuesday, Congress Spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said, "EIA 2020 is an assault on India's ecological security, environment, flora and fauna, forests, ecosystems, millions of poor and disadvantaged Adivasis, and the future generations to come."
He further alleged, "The 'Suit-Boot ki Sarkar' has placed money over the environment, expediency over transparency and profit over preservation. A myopic Modi Government, blinded by an insatiable lust to promote crony capitalist friends, is hell-bent upon jeopardising and compromising India's future."
Over 17 lakh number objections have been raised by various environmentalists, civil society groups, activists and political leaders, concerning over the contentious draft regulation and the need to overhaul environmental clearance system.
Also Read: EIA 2020 draft's objective is 'loot of the nation', must be withdrawn: Rahul Gandhi
Congress noted that EIA 2020 "licences and legitimize environmental damage" as it allows the project owners too, post-facto, pay compensation in cases where they pollute the environment and can also continue their operations. "The act obtains compensation is presumed to retrieve the environmental damage caused by introducing a concept of monitoring environmental crimes. This is an amnesty scheme giving a clean chit to polluters without a cut off date," said Surjewala.
He stated that in the new draft notification, public consultations are "endangered" and public hearing "done away with" for a large category of projects. He further added, "40 types of projects have been completely excluded, including sand and clay extraction, coal and non-coal mineral prospecting, solar thermal power projects and solar parks. However, no criteria for this exemption has been made public."
As EIA 2020 has increased the period validity of prior environmental clearances, Congress asserted that the move will allow projects to "secure" lands for long durations without accountability or transparency. Surjewala also added that the Union Government is "unilaterally acquiring" power to appoint State Environment Impact Assessment Authorities, thereby "killing" cooperative federalism.
Earlier, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh had raised similar concerns over the matter. Jairam Ramesh even penned down several letters to Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar, explaining over the need to scrap the new draft notification.
While on the other side, Javadekar hit out at the opposition party, on Monday, for raising objections over the draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) 2020 notification, by calling them "unnecessary" and "premature", saying that the notification is not final yet.
Read: Objections over EIA draft are 'unnecessary and premature': Javadekar
When ETV Bharat asked about Environment Minister's claims, Surjewala replied, "Union Minister is becoming delusional vis-a-vis to the ecological security of the country. If the objections against EIA 2020 are not to be raised then why are they even being asked? If we cannot point out that the EIA 2020 draft notification is an assault on India's environment, it's entire people, biodiversity and on the future of our generations then why are we even having a democratic order?"
