Environmental clearances not given in hurry: Official

Environmental clearances to development projects in India are given after "multi-level scrutiny" and "not in a hurry", a Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) official said here on Thursday.

"We have to give clearances... if roads are to be constructed... we have to give clearances. But there are steps for that. Everything has a detailed project report (DPR). In DPR checking is done at three to four levels. It's not that it's done in a hurry. It takes at least two to three years," the ministry's Additional Secretary Amita Prasad told the media here when asked about the ministry coming under fire in recent times over clearances.

She was speaking at the National Conference on Faunal Diversity in the Indian land and seascapes at the Zoological Survey of India here.

"What we have to see is while we are doing it, we don't destroy it (environment). There are ways of doing things where minimum loss to environment is there. That we take care of... nobody is doing in a hurry. There are Environmental Impact Assessments, Apublic consultations and multi-level checking," she added.

--IANS

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