India News | NGT Asks MoEF to Form Panel to Prepare Guidelines for SEIAAs

New Delhi, Dec 8 (PTI) The National Green Tribunal has directed the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) to constitute a three-member committee for formulating guidelines to be followed by State Environment Impact Assessment Authorities (SEIAAs).

The NGT was hearing a petition challenging a notification by the MoEF&CC, according to which the Environmental Clearance (EC) process pertaining to a certain category of projects was decentralised and assigned to the SEIAAs instead of the ministry's Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC).

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A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice A K Goel said the tribunal had, in an earlier order, observed the decentralisation process had to be accompanied by capacity building of the SEIAAs by the ministry.

The bench, also comprising Judicial Member Justice Sudhir Agarwal and expert member A Senthil Vel, said instead of annulling the proposed course of action, it was appropriate to direct the ministry to seriously address the concerns about ensuring effective appraisals before granting environmental clearance.

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Noting the ministry's submission that institutional programmes were being organised for the SEIAAs and State Level Expert Appraisal Committees (SEAC), the bench said, “It can hardly be held to be adequate.”

“Considering that tenure of SEIAA and SEAC are generally for three years and they are manned by government or non-government officers without being backed up by experienced technical staff, such as scientists or engineers, it is necessary to ensure proper manning and proper technical support to undertake appraisals and monitoring,” the bench said.

The bench noted in several states, including Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Gujarat, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, the SEIAAs consisted of three members, while SEACs comprised eight to 15 members.

In some states, two or three SEACs were established according to geographical or other specific considerations, the bench said.

“MoEF&CC thus needs to prescribe qualifications and experience…to back up the functioning of such constituted authorities and committees for effective enforcement of law,” the bench said.

“The MoEF&CC may constitute a three-member committee headed by its Additional Secretary with two other members being Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and Director, National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) and the committee may meet within one month and formulate guidelines or safeguards to be followed by the SEIAAs,” the bench said.

The tribunal directed the committee to review its progress at least once in three months and place its proceedings on the ministry's website.

During the proceedings, the counsel for the petitioner said the grant of ECs without effective appraisals was resulting in irreversible degradation of the environment and that the SEIAAs should be manned by sectoral experts.

“After the grant of EC continuous monitoring of compliance must be ensured,” the counsel said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)