The government on Thursday formed a panel of four ministers on setting up a national regulator for the environment. The four are Prakash Javadekar (environment and forests), Nitin Gadkari (road transport), Ananth Kumar (chemicals and fertilisers) and Piyush Goel (power, coal and renewable energy).
The Supreme Court had on January 6 this year directed the government to appoint a national regulator under Section 3(3) of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, by end-March; later, more time was given. On taking charge of his portfolio, Javadekar sought more time from the court to examine the issue.
The idea of setting up an autonomous body for appraising projects was earlier mooted by the government in 2010. Later, the SC suggested such a body in a case related to stage-I forest clearance for a project of Lafarge Umiam Mining, in an order dated July 2011. It proposed an independent body for appraising projects, enforcing environmental clearance conditions and a penalty on polluters.
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"The matter has discussed in the Union cabinet on July and it decided the matter would need an in-depth analysis by the new government, including examining the feasibility of setting up a statutory regulator, and decided the SC be moved to grant more time for a decision," Javadekar had said in the Rajya Sabha on July 17.
On August 26, the Centre had also set up a committee to review various key environment protection laws. It has been asked to suggest amendments to all these within two months.