Email Now! Last Day To Scrap EIA 2020 Draft

Today, 11 August, marks the last day to oppose the Environment Assessment Act 2020 Draft by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) that has been under continuous criticism for the past few weeks. The draft has been updated from its 2006 version. It now values the ease of doing business at the cost of the holistic well-being of the environment and local communities.

To make things easier, we answer a few simple questions about the draft, and what you can do to curb its implementation.

What does the EIA 2020 propose?

• It offers industries and project proponents post-facto clearance, which allows them to establish, or even continue industrial projects without environmental clearance. This negates the entire point of setting up environmental clauses in the first place.
• The draft says that its violations may only be reported by the government, regulatory authority, or the responsible project proponents themselves. 
• If at all anyone is held responsible, the violator may be accountable for only remediation and resource augmentation of 1.5-2 times of ecological damage caused and the economic benefit derived from the violation.

Why should you oppose it?

• The draft, rather ironically, is heavily tilted in favour of conglomerates that are or will be responsible for environmental degradation. It gives them clearances without any hiccups along the way, pushing capitalistic agendas.
• It limits the voice and opinion of the public by restricting any oppositions from us. No wrongdoing can be pointed out by activists and citizens, and action will be taken only if a responsible party themselves reports it. This limits the democratic freedom of the public in its entirety.
• EIA 2020 takes away the power of communities such as the Adivasis, who depend on land for work and its resources, as they will not have any say in how the land should be treated.
• The draft as a whole, goes against the ethos of sustainable development. While the draft was first formed in 1994 to protect our natural resources and only allow activities that would legally bind by the pro-environment rules, the new draft seems to have taken a U-turn on that.

How can you oppose it?

You can draft an email, expressing your concerns about EIA 2020 and send it to the authorities responsible for its implementation, i.e, members of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. Use the following list of email IDs:

• Secretary of Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change: secy-moef@nic.in
• Joint Secretary of Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change: menong@cag.gov.in  
• The official ID set up for responses toward EIA 2020: eia2020-moefcc@gov.in 

You can find a sample mail here or here.

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