What is EIA? The Draft Environmental Assessment Impact Notification - India 2020

EIA 2020 INDIA

EIA Means:

Environmental Impact Assessment or EIA is the method or study which divines the consequence of a suggested industrial/infrastructural design on the situation. It limits the intended movement/project of comprising recommended without proper oversight or taking adverse consequences into account.

India's new EIA draft has been widely criticized for its problematic changes in rules. Experts answer most the maximum of the types of equipment in the current draft of EIA proves to be a reverse divergence from the elder version.

EIA 2020 :

The EIA is an important committee based project that prevents industrial and infrastructure projects from being approved or cleared without following the required safeguards. It looks that the industry would have at the environment and then a panel of experts would either grant or deny the clearance.

DRAWBACKS OF THIS DRAFT:

1. The new draft EIA Notification proposed by the Union government recently is a regressive departure from the 2006 EIA and would supersede it.

2. The objective of the draft is to be environmentally friendly but instead, it is pro-industry and anti-people. This EIA draft notification would cause a landmark shift in the way clearances are obtained in the country.

3. Firstly, it does continue with the demand for an unrestricted conferences for a wide range of projects.

4. It takes away the voice of affected communities by exempting projects like irrigation, widening of national highways, ropeways, building constructions, and so on from public participation. This notification also reduces the period allotted to the public in that area to expedite the process.

5. Industries are required to submit compliance reports twice a year which is now reduced to once a year. This may reduce the check time on industries and their impact on our environment.

6. It is a pure dilution of the monitoring system.

7. For instance,  Dehing Patkai known as the Amazon of the East in Assam has been ravaged by illegal coal mining for several years by Coal India. The mining was done with clearances since 2013. It may continue to do so and ought still been granted a conditional clearance due to post-facto approvals. This is a problematic issue as no one should benefit from their violations.

DOES IT AFFECT LOCAL GROUND WORKER:

Yes, it crucially affects the local workers involved in the projects. It is important to remark that even though it is national legislation, it was published only in Hindi and English and not in any other vernacular languages. The Delhi High Court ordered to make for translated copies of the draft in other scheduled languages which has not been done yet. This clearly prohibits local communities from public participation as they can’t file objections against something if they cannot understand it.

WHAT SHOULD WE DO AS A CITIZEN AGAINST DRAFT:

The government said that August 11th,2020 is the last day to file the objections against this draft. According to the virtue of article 21, it’s our right to stand against the notification or any harmful files put upon the public.

We the citizen of this country, we should take a proper step to stop this type of destructive decisions that the government has approved. If this draft is legally approved then corruption takes its head to rule over. We must report the government to stop the crucial activities.