NGO cites govt data to oppose setting up of National Investment Board

NEW DELHI: The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) came out against the proposed National Investment Board (NIB), warning that green clearances were already too easy to get and seldom followed up with monitoring. The Delhi-based NGO presented government data showing environmental clearances for 2,17,794 mw of thermal power had been given during the 11th five year Plan as compared to only 53,000 mw that actually got commissioned during the period.

Stating that the NIB would destroy the existing environmental regulatory regime, which instead needed more reforms, CSE noted that project rejection rates for forest clearances were a mere 6% and that of environment clearance an almost negligible 0.1%.

Over the same 11th Plan, Chandra Bhushan, deputy director general of CSE, said, "In total 276 thermal power plants of 2.2 lakh megawatt (MW) capacity, 203 steel plants of 132 million tonnes per annum capacity and 112 cement plants with capacity to produce an additional 202 million tonnes cement every year, have been accorded environment clearance in the 11th five year Plan."

Saying that the government should instead dwell on the reasons behind delay in commissioning of cleared projects, Sunita Narain, director general of the NGO, asked, "The data shows that the Ministry of environment and forests has not been an impediment to infrastructure development. Instead, it has granted massive numbers of clearances. Why, therefore, do we need the NIB?"

Asking for reforms in the clearance processes, CSE demanded that a single-window system be evolved which would ensure each project could be tagged and tracked for all the all green clearances and monitored. The green think tank asked for giving powers and capacity to monitor to the state pollution control boards while doing away with their authority to give clearances under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act was enacted in 1981.

The data released by CSE showed that 8,734 projects had been granted forest clearance and 1.98 lakh hectares of forest land diverted for development in the 11th Plan. The pace of forest land diversion had doubled during period. These clearances included 119 coal mining projects accorded forest clearance, diverting 31,500 hectares of forest land —the highest number cleared in any five year Plan since 1981.

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