New Delhi: The Union government has decided to set up a permanent Environmental Impact Assessment Authority which will evaluate projects when state-level impact assessment authorities are ineffective – a move aimed at speeding up environmental clearances for projects.
The authority will also undertake such other duties as may be assigned to it by the Center from time to time, the union environment ministry said in a draft notification issued on March 5.
Currently, State Environmental Impact Assessment Authorities (SEIAAs) and State Expert Appraisal Committees (SEACs) are responsible for approvals for certain categories of projects such as small mining projects, infrastructure projects and area development.
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While SEIAA is responsible for granting environmental approvals, SEAC advises it in project evaluation.
Their membership varies from state to state, and usually includes independent experts and retired forestry officials. However, delays in reconstitution of these state-level bodies whose mandate is three years, extendable by one year, often result in similar delays in environmental approvals. It has been proposed to extend their term to four years in the draft notification.
The permanent body will have a similar structure as SEIAA/SEAC and will be called the Standing Authority for Environmental Impact Assessment (SAEIA) or the Standing Committee for Environmental Impact Assessment (SCEIA).
“It has been observed that the delay in reconfiguration of the SEIAA system is leading to a complete halt in the EC process at state levels and pending proposals are being transferred in bulk to the Center leading to extended timelines and undue delay in evaluation of projects, thereby impacting project timelines and investor confidence,” the draft adds.
The solution, according to the government, is SAEIA/SCEIA, which consists of ex-officio members nominated by the central government.
Apart from evaluating and approving projects in the “absence of functional authority until the formation of the new SEIAA/SEAC regime,” the draft states that the authority “may also be empowered to consider projects that have been delayed at the SEIAA/SEAC level.”
The draft also limits the amount of delay in assessment that might prompt the authority to intervene – 120 days.
The draft also adds that if the assessment takes place and the SEIAA then delays informing the project applicant, the authority may intervene again.
The draft also adds a penalty clause for state-level committees if they are not able to evaluate projects quickly, making delay one of the reasons for the Union government to remove members of SEAC and SEIAA.
Legal experts have raised concerns and called for more oversight.
“Expert appraisal committees – at the central and state levels – play a crucial role in the environmental approval process. This is the only stage in the process where independent experts properly examine the project proposal and related documents, carry out site visits, and seek additional information when necessary,” said Shibani Ghosh, Advocate on Record at the Supreme Court of India.
“If the proposed permanent committee consists of ex-officio members appointed by the Union government, the independence and expert-led nature of the evaluation phase may come into question,” she added.
“If the environment ministry is very concerned about timely environmental approvals for projects at times when the statutory SEAC and SEIAA committees have completed their terms, but the new committees have not been notified – instead of creating new standing committees from ex-officio members, it can just offer a virtual automatic extension of the tenure of the previous committees for the same six-month periods for which the standing committees have been proposed to be empowered,” said Chetan Agarwal, a Gurugram-based forestry expert, said, “Instead of creating new standing committees from ex-officio members, it can just offer a virtual automatic extension of the tenure of the previous committees for the same six-month periods for which the standing committees have been proposed to be empowered. This will give enough time to appoint new committees or re-delegate the committees.” and continue the environmental assessment work without burdening the already committed bureaucrats in the standing committees.”
