Will oppose any move to bring 'diluted' environment law: Cong

Congress today said it will oppose "tooth and nail" any move by the NDA government to bring new environment law by diluting the existing provisions.
"In case, the government does choose to bring in law, in our opinion dilutes the existing provisions, will certainly say so on behalf of my party we will oppose it tooth and nail in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha," senior Congress leader Ashwani Kumar said at a press conference on a Parliamentary panel's report on environment.
Kumar, who also heads the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Environment and Forest, said that Congress would take similar stand that it has taken on land bill as there are reports that the government is going to dilute some laws essentially based on the recommendations of the T S R Subramanian committee report.

"Any attempt to dilute the existing legal regime will be completely unacceptable. Even in the Parliamentary report on environment that we have placed before Parliament, we have recommended that the government should not accept the TSR Subramanian Committee's recommendations," he said.
In fact, the Parliamentary Panel has suggested that the government should not hurry with new green law without comprehensive consultation will all stakeholders, he said, adding that meaningful consultation with stakeholders is necessary as experts and NGOs have expressed "serious reservations qua the recommendations".
"Some experts have said that the Subramanian committee has proposed a new law 'The Environment Laws Management Act' without stating expressly as to what will be the status of the other existing environment laws -- i.E. Will they be integrated or will they remain," he said.

The T S R Subramanian committee, constituted last year to review laws related to environment and forest protection, has recommended a new law -- Environmental Management Act - that would do away with the need for separate Acts to regulate air and water pollution that empower states to give the consent to operate and establish industrial units.
The committee has recommended other major changes to regulations and laws concerning environment, both pollution and forest-related, and environment clearances among others.