Stay on memo bypassing green nod for projects

Madurai: The Madras high court on Thursday granted interim stay on an office memorandum issued by the ministry of environment, forest and climate change which provides a procedure for grant of post facto clearance to projects that have come up without prior environmental clearance.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by R Fatima from Tuticorin district who sought to quash the memorandum dated July 7. The petitioner stated that the ministry has the powers in the process of regulating and prohibiting activities is governed mainly by two notifications namely - Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification 2006 and the Coastal Regulation Zone notification, 2011. Both these notifications mandate that permissible activities obtain prior clearance.

By way of the memorandum, the ministry is providing an illegal backdoor entry for violators of the EIA notification to obtain clearance and regularize their violations.

The very purpose of conducting an EIA is to ensure that no development takes place without sufficient assessment of the risks and damages that would be caused to the environment. tnn