New Delhi, Jul 15 (PTI) The Environment Ministry has notified the constitution of two new standing bodies to expedite the green clearance process in states and Union Territories.
The new bodies would assume the functions of the existing State Environment Impact Assessment Authorities (SEIAA) and State Expert Appraisal Committees (SEAC) whenever these state-level institutions become non-functional for more than one month due to the expiry of their tenure or delays in reconstitution, or stay imposed on their functioning by court.
While the SEIAA grants environmental clearances, the SEAC advises it in appraising the project.
The ministry had proposed the creation of the new bodies back in March in a draft notification, resulting in experts raising concern over the criteria for selecting their members, as they argued that this could lead to a weakened scrutiny of projects.
That is because unlike in the case of the Centre’s Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC), and state’s SEIAA and SEAC under the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006, the chairpersons and all members of the new bodies do not need to have domain experience, such as being experts with 15 years of experience or a PhD in relevant fields.
The new bodies are called Standing Authority on Environment Impact Assessment (SAEIA) and Standing Committee on Environment Impact Appraisal (SCEIA). The SCEIA will be assisting SAEIA in clearing the projects.
The SAEIA will comprise three members — chief secretary or advisor to the administrator or lieutenant governor as chairperson; principal chief conservator of forest (head of forest force) as a member; and an officer of the state or Union territory government working as special secretary or joint secretary or deputy secretary in the environment department as a member secretary.
The SCEIA will consist of six members. Administrative secretary of the environment department of state or Union territory as chairperson; chief wildlife warden as a member; director general or director of health services of the state as a member; and member secretary of state pollution control board or Union Territory pollution control committee as a member.
It will also have a domain expert, who would be director or principal of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) or National Institute of Technology (NIT) located in the state or Union Territory or their nominees as per requirement.
In the absence of IIT or NIT, the domain expert will be nominated by director of the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute.
There will also be an officer of the state or Union Territory government working as special secretary or joint secretary or deputy secretary in the environment department as the member secretary of the SCEIA. According to the ministry’s latest notification, published on Tuesday, the new bodies will function for not more than a year in the case that state committees are dysfunctional.
Moreover, the ministry has amended the EIA Notification, 2006, to extend the tenure of the SEIAAs and the SEACs from three years to four years.
It has also made it mandatory for state governments to initiate the process of reconstituting SEIAAs and SEACs “at least six months before the expiry of their tenure”. PTI ALC ALC NB NB
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