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Civil society slams Moily
PMOs rush for green clearances
Press release - February 3, 2014
New Delhi, February 3, 2014: In a strong show of unity,
representatives from social and
environmental movements today slammed the newly anointed
environment minister,
Veerappa Moily and the Prime Minister's Office for ignoring
environmental and social
concerns and impacts on local communities, while granting speedy
clearance to mining and
infrastructure projects.
In an open letter to Mr. Moily and the Prime Minister, over 200
organisations have said thatsuch hasty clearances go against the
primary mandate of the ministry, which is to ensure a
safe and healthy environment for all Indians.
The letter signed by a wide variety of human rights,
environmental, community and wildlife
groups and activists was released at a press conference in Delhi
addressed by Samit Aich,
executive director, Greenpeace India, Ashish Kothari of
Kalpavriksh, Vimal Bhai of NAPM,
Shailesh Gandhi, former information commissioner with Central
Information Commission,
and RTI activist Shekhar Singh.
It states: "The recent measures taken by the minister to grant
speedy approvals and relax
regulatory procedures has sent a clear signal that environmental
protection and people's
livelihoods are to be ignored in order to project an
industry-friendly image of thegovernment."
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The minister's actions over the last month have undermined the
very mandate of the
environment ministry, whose performance must be judged on how it
protects the
environment, and not on the number and speed of clearances it
gives for India Inc's big ticket
projects. Of course, Mr. Moily's predecessors have not
necessarily been more responsible
towards this mandate, as evidenced by the fact that virtually
all projects coming to them have
been cleared despite inadequate or fraudulent impact
assessments. Over 2.43 lakh hectares offorests have been cleared
during the UPA regime from 2004 till the end of 2013.
But the new minister clearly wants to surpass his predecessors;
in any case, to have the sitting
petroleum minister also preside over the Environment Ministry is
another example of bad
governance and conflict of interest.
Moily's high profile approvals include coal mining projects in
Madhya Pradesh, a contained
terminal in Tamil Nadu, and the POSCO steel project in Odisha.
POSCO has been resisted
for many years by local communities (including rejection by
panchayats), and has repeatedly
been shown as being in violation of the Forest Rights Act and
other legislation. The fact that
it was cleared very close to the visit of the Korean President
shows how 'scientific' MoEF'sdecision-making is!
Even as the spokespeople of the UPA tout the Forest Rights Act
and 'inclusive development'
as their main achievements over the last 10 years, one section
of the government is going all
out to undermine a number of legislations and policies,
including the Forest Rights Act, the
Forest Conservation Act, and the Panchayat (Extension to
Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA).
This has been done for example, by relaxing provisions requiring
gram sabha consent for
linear projects (roads, railway and transmission lines), and
refusing to take action where there
are clear instances of FRA violations, as in the case of
Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh. The
setting up of a Cabinet Committee on Investments, with powers to
over-ride line ministries, is
another example of how the blind pursuit of growth gives short
shrift to environment and
people's rights.
This government's pretence at being pro-poor and pro-rights has
come to an end. The political
gains that helped the UPA in 2009 through its championing of the
FRA, NREGA, Right to
Information Act etc will be absent in 2014 due to the manner in
which a powerful section of
the government has actively undermined these key legislations to
benefit a section of
industry. This is of course not to say that other mainstream
parties will be any better; the
BJP's record in Gujarat, for instance, is an ecological
disaster.
Members of civil society demanded that ahead of the 2014 general
elections the governmentshould publicly affirm that the primary
mandate of the environment ministry is not to grant
clearances and subvert existing legislation, but to protect the
environment for public interest,
making it an essential player in the UPA government's stated
mandate of inclusive and
sustainable development. Such a commitment should be included in
the manifestos of all
political parties in the run-up to the elections
For further information, contact:
Anindita Datta Choudhury, Sr. Media Officer, Greenpeace India,
Mob: +91 987 151 5804,
email: [email protected]
