To pave way for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to ‘Make in India’ and get in sync with the Centre’s changed modus operandi Jharkhand is gearing up to relax environmental clearance norms.
Development Commissioner RS Poddar has called a high-level meeting on Monday of senior officials and also from the Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board (JSPCB) to discuss the modalities involved in the process.
The State Government has swung into action after the Centre shot off a letter telling it to give a relook to the set procedures for granting environmental clearances given to the industries falling under ‘green’, ‘orange’ and ‘red’ categories.
“There are procedures set for getting environmental clearances and non-objection certificates for running from brick kilns, sand mining, stone crushers, to chemical factories, power plants and so on. The process has been hectic and the Centre is looking to ease the process so that the Prime Minister’s dream project ‘Make in India’ can be fastened.
We will be discussing how to go about this and whether the industries falling into some categories can be exempted from necessarily acquiring environment related certifications,” said a senior official of the Development Commissioner office.
Total 55 kinds of industries are listed under ‘green’ category, which include units related to mineral water, sand mining activities, leather processing, wood and furniture, handloom, bamboo and cane, electronics items etc. While ‘orange’ industries signify some impact on environment and include 25 kinds of industries. Automobile servicing, hotels and restaurants, pulping, fish processing, stone crushers, fertilisers, pharmaceuticals etc fall into this.
“The idea is to exempt the ‘green’ category of industries completely from taking any kind of environmental clearance. Guidelines coming from the Centre in this regard also suggest that industries falling under the ‘orange’ category can be made eligible for ‘self certification’ kind of system. The change is expected to fasten the pace of small and medium scale units coming into existence and the programme can get a boost,” said the official. However, ‘red’ industries would have to pass through the desired certifications.
Moreover, the JSPCB has expressed concern over putting industries like sand mining and other operating on below five hectares of land. As per an order of the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Environment and Forests has set up a State-level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA). Eight kinds of industries or projects requiring environmental clearance have been further categorised into A & B.
“If the industries are given go ahead without any clearance required from the SEIAA then it could be a violation of the Supreme Court’s verdict. This will need an amendment and statuary permission has to be given through legislation. We will raise the issue in the meeting,” said a senior official of the JSPCB.
The idea and issues involved in giving exemptions would be complied and sent back to the Centre with some recommendations. The Centre on its part would look into perspective similar inputs coming from all the States. “The change in the environmental clearance process has to be uniform across the country and thus the consultation process is being initiated,” added he.
This apart, the entire process of granting the nod would be made completely online by June 30 this year removing all kinds of manual interventions in granting NOC and ‘consent to operate’. Nevertheless, JSPCB has taken a lead and made most of the work online in the State.