Exempt brick kiln activity from environmental clearance: Badal

The Punjab Government has urged the Centre to exempt brick kiln activity in the State from environmental clearance.
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today urged the Union Minister of Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar and sought his personal intervention to exempt the standalone activity of mining of brick earth and ordinary earth, having mining area up to five hectares and depth up to 1.5 m from obtaining the environmental clearance.
In a letter to Javadekar, the Chief Minister requested him to get the necessary amendment incorporated in the legislation so as to exempt the brick kiln activity from the ambit of Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification dated September 14, 2006.

He apprised the Union Minister that manufacturing of red bricks using ordinary earth was a centuries old practice in India.
"It is a small scale activity regarding digging only up to a certain depth and there were about 3000 brick kilns in Punjab manufacturing burnt bricks using ordinary earth," Badal said in an official statement.
As per original EIA notification dated September 14, 2006 issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, mining of minor minerals in an area less than five hectares fell under the ambit of the notification and hence did not require any environment clearance, he said.

"However, according to the orders dated February 27, 2012 passed by the Supreme Court in the matter of Deepak Kumar etc. V/s State of Haryana & others, the projects of mining of minor minerals ever in area less than five hectares were required to obtain in the Environment clearance," he said in the letter.
Badal also said that in compliance with the orders of the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Environment & Forests in May 2012 directed that all the projects of mining of minor minerals would require prior environmental clearance irrespective of the size of the mining area.