Lok Sabha Question No. 142 (STARRED), answered on 2016-03-08
Subject: Environmental Clearances
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: C. MAHENDRAN

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION No. *142

TO BE ANSWERED ON 08.03.2016

## Environmental Clearances

## *142. SHRI C. MAHENDRAN:

Will the Minister of ENVIRONMENT, FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE be pleased to state:

- (a) the  mechanism  in  place  to  grant  environment  clearances  to  various  industries along with the normative time and actual time taken for the purpose;
- (b) whether any study has been undertaken to assess the impact of delayed clearance on the projects and economy of the country and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether the Government is planning to reclassify the industry per se and prepare new list of industries which may not need environmental clearances at all, if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether there is a new initiative of preparing 'white' list which is likely to boost Make in India campaign and if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) whether  the  Government  has  taken  into  consideration  and  analysed  the  likely negative  impact  of  the  said  policy  on  the  environment  and  if  so,  the  details thereof?

## ANSWER

MINISTER  OF  STATE  (INDEPENDENT  CHARGE)  FOR  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

(SHRI PRAKASH JAVADEKAR)

(a) to (e) :

A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

****

## STATEMENT IN REPLY TO PARTS (a), (b), (c), (d) AND (e) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *142 FOR ANSWER ON 08/03/2016 REGARDING ENVIRONMENTAL CLEARANCES

- (a) The  Environment  Impact  Assessment  (EIA)  Notification  was  issued  by  the Ministry  on  14 th September,  2006  by  superseding  the  earlier  Notification  of 27.01.1994.  As per the EIA Notification, 2006, (i) all new projects or activities listed  in  the  Schedule  to  this  notification; (ii)  expansion  and  modernization  of existing  projects  or  activities  listed  in  the  Schedule  to  this  notification  with addition of capacity beyond the limits specified for the concerned sector, that is, projects  or  activities  which  cross  the  threshold  limits  given  in  the  Schedule, after expansion or modernization; and (iii) any change in product - mix in an existing  manufacturing  unit  included  in  Schedule  beyond  the  specified  range, require  prior  environment  clearance.  The  environmental  clearance  process comprises of four stages, namely, Stage (1) Screening; Stage (2) Scoping; Stage (3)  Public  Consultation  and  Stage  (4)  Appraisal.  An  application  seeking  prior environmental clearance in all cases has to be made in the prescribed Form 1 and Form 1A(if applicable), as provided in the EIA Notification, 2006, along with a copy of pre-feasibility project report. In case of construction projects or activities (item 8 of the Schedule), in addition to Form 1 and the Supplementary Form  1A,  a  copy  of  the  Conceptual  Plan  is  to  be  provided  in  place  of  prefeasibility project report.

The  EIA  Notification,  2006  has  categorized  the  projects  into  two  categories namely;  Category  'A'  and  Category  'B'  based  on  their  impact  potential. Category 'A' projects are being appraised at the Central level (MoEFCC) while Category  'B'  project  at  the  State  Level  Environment  Impact  Assessment Authorities (SEIAAs). The SEIAAs have been constituted by the Ministry for the purpose of appraisal of Category 'B' projects.

The Ministry has taken various initiatives and made the required changes in the policies, rules, and notifications with the objective to create a clean, simple and transparent process of environmental clearance. The important initiatives are:

- Mandating  online  submission  of  applications  for  Terms  of  Reference (TOR) and Environmental Clearance from 4 th July 2014 in the Ministry and  2 nd July 2015  in the SEIAA,  with  a view to bring  more transparency in the system and expediting the decision making;
- Amendments  in  EIA  Notification,  2006  delegating  more  powers  to States (SEIAAs);
- Standardised  the  Terms  of  Reference  for  38  sectors  for  preparation  of Environment Impact Assessment Report and Environment Management Plan, and mandating finalisation of ToR in 30 days. This has drastically reduced the time required for getting ToR;
- General approval for roads and other strategic infrastructure in area of 100 kilometer from LAC;
- General Approval for roads in 117 left wing extremism (LWE) affected districts;
- Delegated the power to Regional  Empowered  Committee  (REC)

constituted at each of the ten Regional Offices of the Ministry to take final decision on proposals seeking diversion up to 40 hectares of forest land  except  those  relating  to  mining,  regularisation  of  encroachments and hydro -electric projects;

- Delegated power to REC to finally dispose of proposals seeking forest clearance  to  linear  projects,  irrespective  of  the  area  of  forest  land involved;
- Exemption  to  all  highway  projects  in  border  States  from  scoping requirement and exempting all linear projects in border States from the requirement of public hearing subject to suitable conditions prescribed by the Ministry;
- Exempting  the  construction  of  industrial  shed,  school,  college,  hostels for educational institution from requirement of EC;
- Amended  the  EIA  notification  to  facilitate expeditious  transfer of environmental clearance to new allocatee of cancelled coal blocks;
- Increased  the  validity  of  Environmental  Clearance  from  5  years  to  7 years;
- For the first time delegated the power to grant environmental clearance for  mining  of  minor  minerals  (including  sand  mining)  for  5  ha.  of individual  lease  and  25  ha.  in  cluster,  to  the  district  level  authority (District  Environment  Impact  Assessment  Authority)  headed  by  the District Magistrate.

The timelines prescribed in the Notification for various stages of clearance are:

- 30 days specified for prescribing the Terms of Reference (TORs); (After 30 days the standard ToRs generated by the system are issued automatically.  It  has  resulted  in  drastic  reduction  in  timeline  for prescribing of ToRs.)
- 45 days for public consultation (wherever applicable);
- 60 days for appraisal; and
- 45 days thereafter for communicating  the decision to project proponent.

The time for appraisal of the environment clearance application begins with the date  of  submission  of  application  by  the  project  proponent  for  environmental clearance  to  Ministry/  SEIAAs.    The  environment  clearance  application  has therefore to be disposed of within a total of 105 days (60 days for appraisal and 45 days for communicating the decision) of receipt of complete application with requisite  documents  except  where  the  regulatory  authority  disagrees  with  the recommendations  of  the  Expert  Appraisal  Committee  /  State  Level  Expert Appraisal Committee. In situations where the regulatory authority do not agree with the recommendations  of  the  EAC,  and  requests  reconsideration of recommendations;  the EAC / SEACs in turn consider the observation of the regulatory authority and furnish their views on the same within a further period of 60 days.  The decision of the regulatory authority shall be conveyed to the applicant  within  next  30  days.  Generally,  the  timelines  specified  in  the  EIA Notification are followed.  The delay in grant of environment clearance is by and large observed due to non-submission of timely and complete information by the project proponent.

During the last twenty months, Ministry has accorded Environment Clearance to 943 projects involving an approximate investment of Rs.672422.60 crores.

The  weighted  average  time  taken  in  granting  environmental  clearance  before launching online system (4 th July 2014) was 599.29 days, which has now come down  to  192.59  days  after  launch  of  online  system  for  applications  for environmental clearance.

- (b) No, Sir.
- (c) The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in consultation with Central  Pollution  Control  Board  has  reclassified  the  industries  into  'red', 'orange', 'green' and 'white' based on the score of pollution load (index). For the new category of 'white' industry, which is practically non-polluting will not require  Environmental  Clearance  and  Consent.  A  list  of  white  category  of industries is annexed as Annexure - A.
- (d) Yes, Sir. The newly introduced 'white' category of industries includes 36 nonpolluting  industrial  sectors.  This  'Re-categorization'  is  a  part  of  the  efforts, policies  and  objective  of  present  government  to  create  a  clean  &  transparent working environment in the country and promote the Ease of Doing Responsible Business and thereby, boosting the Make in India drive as well.
- (e) This policy of Re-categorization of industries based on their pollution load is a scientific  exercise.  The  old  system  of categorization  was creating problem for many industries and was not reflecting the pollution of the industries. The new categories will remove this lacuna and will give clear picture to everyone. 25 industrial sectors which were not critically polluting were also earlier categorized as Red. This was creating wrong impression to everyone.

The new category of white industries which in practically non-polluting will not require EC  and  Consent  and  will  help  in getting  finance  from  lending institutions. The exercise of Re-categorization was being carried out for last one year. This is a landmark decision to give fair and clear picture of the industries.

Annexure - A

## List of White category of Industries

|   Sl. No. | Industry Sector                |
|-----------|--------------------------------|
|         1 | Air coolers /conditioners      |
|         2 | Bicycles, baby carriages       |
|         3 | Bailing of waste papers        |
|         4 | Bio fertilizer /bio-pesticides |
|         5 | Biscuits trays                 |
|         6 | Blending / packing of tea      |

|   7. | Block making of printing                                                                                  |
|------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|    8 | Chalk making                                                                                              |
|    9 | Compressed oxygen gas                                                                                     |
|   10 | Cotton and woolen hosiers                                                                                 |
|   11 | Diesel pump repairing                                                                                     |
|   12 | Electric lamp (bulb) and CFL                                                                              |
|   13 | Electrical and electronic item                                                                            |
|   14 | Engineering and fabrication units                                                                         |
|   15 | Flavoured betel nuts                                                                                      |
|   16 | Fly ash bricks/ block                                                                                     |
|   17 | Fountain pen                                                                                              |
|   18 | Glass ampules                                                                                             |
|   19 | Glass putty and sealant                                                                                   |
|   20 | Ground nut decorticating                                                                                  |
|   21 | Handloom/ carpet weaving                                                                                  |
|   22 | Leather cutting and stitching                                                                             |
|   23 | Coir items from coconut husks                                                                             |
|   24 | Metal caps containers etc                                                                                 |
|   25 | Shoe brush and wire brush                                                                                 |
|   26 | Medical oxygen                                                                                            |
|   27 | Organic and inorganic nutrients                                                                           |
|   28 | Organic manure                                                                                            |
|   29 | Packing of powdered milk                                                                                  |
|   30 | Paper pins and u clips                                                                                    |
|   31 | Repairing of electric motors /generators                                                                  |
|   32 | Rope (plastic and cotton)                                                                                 |
|   33 | Scientific and mathematical instrument                                                                    |
|   34 | Solar module non conventional energy apparatus                                                            |
|   35 | Solar power generation through solar photovoltaic cell, wind power and mini hydel power (less than 25 MW) |
|   36 | Surgical and medical products assembling                                                                  |