[Reader-list] YJA - A public interest report disguised as "secret"?

[Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan]

To,

Dr Manmohan Singh ji,
Hon’ble Prime Minister
Government of India,
NEW DELHI

Respected Sir,

Greetings from Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan, which is a civil society  
consortium of organisations and individuals, come together for the  
revival of river Yamuna.

First of all allow us to congratulate you in your taking over once  
again as the Prime Minister of the new government.

Sir, we write you this note with great sadness as this is about a  
report which on the face of it has originated from a direction given  
by your own good self. We are pained specially more because if this is  
the manner of the functioning of the state in matters of great public  
interest and dealing with the future of the natural India - threatened  
gravely by the vested interests - by a government headed by a person  
of impeccable integrity like you then one can only shudder at  
imagining the state of the nation, when lesser mortals may come to  
rule the roost!

Sir, the report in question is the report dated 10 November 20098  
strangely marked ‘secret’ of a Finance Ministry initiated “Expert  
Group to examine the Schemes of Statutory Clearances for Industrial  
and Infrastructure Projects in India”. It is notable that this expert  
group with obvious aim to ‘speed up clearances’ had overwhelmingly  
industry representatives on it so much so that the sole civil society  
representative on it (CEO of a well known conservation NGO) has signed  
the report as a representative of the CII.

Sir, without going into the merits or demerits of the recommendations  
of the report (since these have been already covered by the recent  
media reports and been very ably presented by Ms Sunita Narain,  
Director, CSE in her critique of the same in her communication in the  
matter with the then Secretary, Planning Commission) we wish to bring  
some  fundamental issues relating to transparent governance in our  
land so ably facilitated by the greatest gift of your last government  
to this country namely the Right to Information Act (RTI).

Sir, one can well understand a grievance held by a stakeholder like  
the industry leader concerning this or that regulatory mechanisms and  
the need of a redressal platform / mechanism for the same. But when  
the mechanism under question namely the Environmental Impact  
Assessment (EIA) and related Environmental Clearance (EC) is the  
subject matter and above all when a matter like ‘Public Hearing’ is  
involved then how can it be secretive in nature and then appears to be  
carried through in a hush-hush manner.

Sir, your kind attention is invited to the recently proposed  
amendments to the EIA Notification of 2006, wherein many  
recommendations of this Expert group find a place.

Thus, allow us to seek your indulgence on:

a)    Should not any such Expert Group have concerned civil society  
representatives on it?
b)    Should such a report ever be treated as ‘Secret’ when the issues  
concern public interest in such critical manner as the future of  
unsuspecting people's lands and livelihoods and above all their  
natural environment?
c)     Should not all such reports be immediately brought to public  
attention under the provision of the Section 4 (suo moto disclosure)  
of the RTI?

On another but related matter, you may be aware that today the world  
over the assessment of environmental impacts (with their obvious  
limitations) of industry and infrastructure projects have given way to  
holistic assessment of “risks” (including environmental and social)  
associated with such activities and then to decide in a transparent  
and participatory manner whether the proposed action is worth taking  
the risk or not?

Accordingly we request you to:

Let this report be made public on urgent basis
Let in future all such reports be suo moto brought to the public  
attention under Section 4 of the RTI
Let the whole process of already watered down EIA Notification 2006 be  
reviewed by a truly representative (including those from the industry)  
Expert Group before any action on the proposed changes is taken
Let us also enter the realm of holistic “risk assessments” of proposed  
projects from the present regime of poorly conducted and evaluated  
environmental and social impacts assessments of potentially risky  
projects.

Sir, we sincerely hope that your honor would find merit in our humble  
appeal,

Warm regards

Manoj Misra,
Convenor
Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan
DELHI
-- 
www.yamunajiyeabhiyaan.blogspot.com