THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) notification in March seems to have come as a godsend to violators in the state. Hospitals, apartments and quarries that were issued ‘stop memos’ by State-Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SIEAA) for their eco-hazardous activities that did not have the mandatory environment clearance have made use of the chance offered by the MoEF notification to regularise their violations. The notification, widely termed unprecedented, offered a six months window for violators to get environment clearance and violators have jumped at the chance.
A year ago, for instance, the State-Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SIEAA) had issued a ‘stop memo’ to the construction activities of a major hospital perched on the banks of a waterbody in Kochi. Not just the hospital, but the district collector, who is supposed to implement the SIEAA decision, too ignored the order. The hospital went ahead with its illegal expansion plans with impunity. And just when the SIEAA was about to take action against the collector, the MoEF notification was out. The most shocking part of the notification is that all violations, irrespective of the category, will be adjudicated by the Centre. Meaning, state-level agencies like the SIEAA or State-Level Expert Appraisal Committee, which had been looking into Category B violations like mining, housing, and construction violations, will have nothing to do with it.
The hospital in Kochi, which had been served a ‘stop memo’ by the SIEAA, promptly applied for a fresh environment clearance with the Centre. What’s more, 12 other hospitals, innumerable quarries and apartment complexes, which were served ‘stop memo’ by the SIEAA in the last two years, have also applied for EC.
“I find this exceptionally strange. I have no idea how they are going to assess the damage done to the environment by certain activities without site inspections,” a top SIEAA source said.
The notification is also legally suspect. The National Green Trib-unal in 2015 had made it clear that the Enviro-nment Impact Asses-sment Notification, 2006, provides for prior environment clearance and not post environment clearance. The Centre’s logic is that it is better to bring these projects and activities within the ambit of law rather than leaving them unregualted and unchecked. “Does it mean that our laws have no teeth,” asks environment activist Dr V.S. Vijayan. The Centre’s logic is also akin to giving a thief who had been caught red-handed a chance to prove his innocence. “The Centre should take action against violators not provide them with an opportunity to regularise their violations,” Dr Vijayan said.
