For faster green nods, scope of umbrella portal to be expanded

NEW DELHI: The government will expand the scope of 'Parivesh'- a single window portal for all environmental clearances- to enable faster green approvals through a single form as part of its larger goal of ‘ease of doing business’ and bring transparency in the entire process.
The expansion of 'Parivesh' will help in tracking of all approvals such as environment, forests, coastal and wildlife through Centralised Processing Centre-Green (CPC-Green).The move was announced by the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting her Budget for 2022-23 in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
The 'Parivesh' was launched in 2018 for faster green clearances by removing several bottlenecks in processing applications of project proponents. "It has been instrumental in reducing the time required for approvals significantly. The scope of this portal will now be expanded, to provide information to the applicants. Based on the location of units, information about specific approvals will be provided," said the finance minister.
The Centre for Policy Research (CPR), a Delhi-based think tank, in its preliminary observations on the Budget on the issue of environment and climate change, however, said that the move may present a risk of diluting environmental safeguards.
"A reduction in time required for land approvals for affordable housing, and an expanded scope of the single window portal for green clearances, indicate a continued focus on the government’s aims of ‘minimum government, maximum governance’, but presents a risk of diluting environmental safeguards in pursuit of efficiency gains," said Navroz K Dubash of the CPR.
In its conclusion, the CPR spoke about the need for a strategic framework for green transition. It said, "India needs institutions that can provide clear strategic thinking, long-term analytical capacity, and clear visioning to chart low-carbon, job-creating, and climate resilient transitions. An important role for future budgets is to allocate funds to support government institutions that can play these roles."