2-day conference to discuss changes in environment laws

The government will hold a two-day national conference next week as a final step of consultations before bringing amendments in existing green laws, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar today said.
The conference, to be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will be attended by Chief Ministers and Environment Ministers from across the states who will brainstorm on proposed changes in the six environment laws apart from reflecting upon "simplification" of existing processes and ensure "strict" compliance of green norms.
"After the April 6-7 conference, we will finalise our recommendations, prepare the cabinet note and bring it before the cabinet so that the bills as amended can be brought in the second half of Parliament session," Javadekar said.

Giving details of the conference, the Minister said the first day will have two sessions each on 'Waste to Wealth' and 'Ease of doing business and TSR report'.
"The processes need to be made simpler and norms stricter so that delay is avoided. We will issue new rules regarding, solid waste, liquid waste, e-waste, hazardous waste, plastic waste, bio-waste, medical waste etc," he said.
The final responses on review of all six environment laws will come in this conference as there will be open discussion between state and central government officials on various environment issues.
The six laws that govern environment, forest and wildlife related issues are Environment (Protection) Act, Forest (Conservation) Act, Wildlife (Protection) Act, Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act and Indian Forest Act.

Government had constituted a high-level committee headed by T S R Subramaniam to review various environment laws in order to bring them in line with "current requirements". The committee has already submitted its recommendations, a key of which is to review environment laws.