Badal Urges GOI To Liberalize Norms Under EIA Notification, 2006 To Ensure Smooth Supply Of Construction Material
5 Dariya News
Chandigarh 19-Sep-2012
In order to remove scarcity of construction material urgently required to undertake the public and private projects in the state, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today urged the Union Minister of State Environment & Forests Mrs. Jayanthi Natarajan seeking her personal intervention to ease out the stringent procedure laid down under the provisions of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006 which had adversely impacted the supply of construction material. Seeking few amendments to be incorporated in the EIA Notification, 2006 to ease out the situation, the Chief Minister in a letter to Mrs. Natarajan suggested that the state authority be empowered to consider the environmental clearances of the minor mineral projects irrespective of its area by amending the schedule to the notification, 2006, all the minor projects of an area less than 5 hectare be considered in the B-2 category projects so that their environmental clearances could be obtained in minimum possible time schedule. Likewise, Badal also recommended exemption from obtaining environmental clearance for minor mineral projects of ordinary earth and brick earth etc. wherein depth of mining does not exceed 6 feet, besides the general condition in schedule of the EIA Notification, 2006 that any project or activity specified in category ‘B’ would be treated as category ‘A’ if located in whole or in part within the 10 Km from the interstate and international boundaries be reduced to 1 Km. Badal rued that the time bound projects of national importance like Chandigarh Airport, roads, highways and other infrastructure works have since been affected severely with cascading effect on the economy of the state. It may be recalled that Punjab is facing a severe crunch of construction material viz. sand, bajri etc. as the mining operations in the state have come to a grinding halt in the wake of recent directions of the Punjab & Haryana High Court issued on August 17, 2012. The aforesaid orders dated February 27, 2012 wherein a prior environmental clearance for the mining projects of less than 5 hectare area had also been made mandatory. Prior environmental clearance for the quarries comprising of an area more than 5 hectares was made mandatory by the Punjab & Haryana High Court vide its orders passed on November 6, 2009. Further the High Court in its orders dated April 26, 2012 held the environmental clearance mandatory to be obtained by the brick kiln owners.