I/II. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Bombay-HC-stays-lifting-of-moratorium-on-mega-projects-in-Dodamarg-corridor/articleshow/40205130.cms Bombay HC stays lifting of moratorium on mega projects in Dodamarg corridor Shibu Thomas <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toireporter/author-Shibu-Thomas.cms>, TNN | Aug 13, 2014, 11.58PM IST Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Wednesday, in an interim order, stayed the decision of the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) to lift the moratorium on large-scale projects in Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts, falling in the Sawantwadi-Dodamarg wildlife corridor. A division bench of Justices Anoop Mohta and Amjad Sayed told the MoEF to file an affidavit in the matter.
"You should have informed the court before issuing the order," said the judges, questioning the MoEF on its decision despite a court ordered moratorium in place. The court said that the October 2013 moratorium on development projects would continue to operate. Advocates Snehlata Paranjape and Mohana Nair told the court that the Centre's decision would result in large-scale destruction of the protected corridor in the Western ghats from mining and other projects. According to a petition filed by Sumaira Abdulali of the Awaaz Foundation, the corridor acts as a crucial link between forest areas in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa. The 35-km long and 10-km wide green corridor connects Anshi Dandeli, Bhimgad and Radhanagari sanctuaries and environmentalists have been demanding that it should be declared as eco-sensitive. The MoEF had on July 25, 2014, lifted the moratorium on development projects in 38 of the 51 villages in Dodamarg, leaving only 13 villages with the protected status. The MoEF justified its decision, saying that they were not part of the ecologically sensitive areas of the Western Ghats, as described by the high-level working group headed by K Kasturirangan. "Keeping in view the proposed ecologically sensitive areas in Western Ghats in Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg have been demarcated at the village level, protected from the identified projects which have maximum interventionist and damaging impacts on the ecosystems... the ministry has decided to lift the moratorium with immediate effect from villages falling in the non-ecologically sensitive areas," the MoEF circular said. II. http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31818&articlexml=BID-TO-REVIVE-INVESTMENTS-India-Inc-Wants-Azaadi-15082014001010 INVESTMENTS - India Inc Wants Azaadi from Green Restrictions [email protected] New Delhi Urges PMO to lift curbs imposed by UPA govt India Inc has urged the Prime Minister's Office to take urgent corrective action to lift some of the major obstacles imposed on environmental and forest clearances by the previous UPA government, most notably during the 29-month tenure of Jayanthi Natarajan at the ministry of environment and forests, in order to revive investments. The need to fix the green clearances regime was flagged to the PMO at an August 9 meeting on the procedural and policy level irritants that affect the ease of doing business in India that was attended by top government officials and industry representatives. "If the government wants to improve sentiment, it must act faster on the green clearances front where there is a lot of low-hanging fruit to pick, such as clarifying or withdrawing UPA decisions that continue to hamper projects worth lakhs of crores," an industry official aware of the development told ET. The PMO had sought industry's ideas on how the clearances can be streamlined. It wanted a major thrust on decentralisation, empowering state governments to take decisions wherever possible. Industry has urged the PMO to operationalise a clause in the environmental impact assessment (EIA) norms of 2006 that grant `deemed clearance' to appraised projects if ministers fail to sign their files in specified timelines -a move that could end the ministerial discretion of the kind that is said to have allowed Natarajan to delay projects for months on end. "We had heard of income, sales, and excise taxes, but for the first time, we heard about a `Jayanthi tax' in Delhi. Till the time that was not paid, files could not be moved," Modi had said earlier this year, before the Lok Sabha elections. Natarajan had termed Modi's comments as completely baseless and said the personal attack on her was in retaliation to her opposition to the "destruction of environment" in Gujarat. Industry has also urged the government to tighten the process for conducting public hearings during the environmental impact assessment of a project, as they are often disrupted by elements that have nothing to do with the environment, resulting in inordinate delays. In the case of larger projects, it has proposed that a single public hearing could be considered for both land acquisition and environmental impact assessment as the stakeholders in both cases are the same. The change in government has led to a significant shift in attitude, according to some. "That the government has a clear intent of fixing clearance processes across sectors is apparent as the PMO is asking for very specific inputs on key issues holding up investments and there is no negativity in considering industry's problems," an executive said, adding this was not the case when India Inc met officials or ministers in the UPA's last three years. Corporate India has given the PMO a laundry list of problems it faces across sectors on account of grey areas in green nods. Immediate action is needed, for instance, to repair a forest clearance norm introduced by Natarajan that industry says could bring all mining operations to a halt five months from now. In February 2013, the environment ministry had ordered that all mines with partial forest clearances should get a fresh clearance for their entire lease areas by January 2015. Getting a forest clearance within two years is almost impossible, industry has said. Incidentally, the environment ministry is yet to implement a directive from previous Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that no fresh environment clearance should be sought for renewing mining leases, if they had been obtained under the 1994 EIA norms. Several mines have closed down or are facing closure due to the expiry of their mining leases due to the ministry's inaction, said industry officials. A misinterpreted clause of the 2006 EIA norms has forced several industries to put on hold major expansion and greenfield projects, as any construction beyond 20,000 square metres now needs a separate environmental nod. Industry has argued that this norm was meant to cover large township and housing construction projects, not the building of factories. Some of these issues have already been raised by industry officials with environment, forest and climate change minister Prakash Javadekar, who has launched an online portal to track green clearances and eased up procedures for critical defence projects in border areas. Javadekar also holds charge of the parliamentary affairs and information and broadcasting portfolios in the Modi cabinet. India Inc has also pointed out that a diktat to investors that they should buy 80% to 100% of the land by the time their project goes for environmental appraisal, is a huge problem. "With the new land acquisition law, this poses an even greater challenge and poses major risks to business," an official said. A rethink has also been sought on a December 2013 directive from the environment ministry, requiring cement plants' grinding units to transport 90% of their raw material and finished products through the Railways. "Transporting fly ash, which is about 35% of the raw material, over rail is not feasible over short distances as cement plants are generally located near fly ash sources," an industry official explained. On the forest clearances front, industry has proposed a change in the process for identifying non-forest land for compensatory afforestation, which becomes a challenge in the face of poor land records in states. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
