Jairam to include industry in advisory council for environmental clearances

Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh said he’d set up an advisory council with participation of industry to look into policy issues regarding environment clearances. The council, to meet once in three months, will examine suggestions on changes required in policy for faster environment and forest clearance.

In an interaction yesterday with the Confederation of Indian Industry, he also endorsed the view that all projects related to natural resource extraction should be put up for competitive bidding only after getting environmental and forest clearances.

“The policy (of pre-approval) is already applicable for Ultra Mega Power Projects and can be expanded to the mining sector,” he said.

He said it wasn’t the environmental clearance that took time but the forest clearance that took years. Over 90 per cent of the applications for environmental clearances were approved by the ministry, he said. Questions and closure orders on projects were raised only when basic environmental regulations were not met.

Concern for the environment was not an elitist subject. It was increasingly becoming a livelihood issue for tribals and also a public health concern, he said.