CLEARANCE OF MoEF: Punjab CM seeks PM intervention

Chandigarh, December 9, 2012: Seeking personal intervention of the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today urged him to impress upon the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) to get all the pending issues examined expeditiously for early nod to the mining projects, as the non-clearance by the Ministry has not only led to alarming scarcity of construction material but could also cause law and order problems in the state.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Badal apprised him that Punjab had been facing critical situation regarding unavailability of construction material viz. Sand, Gravel, Bajri, Bricks etc. which had adversely impacted the construction activity in the state due to pending issues with MoEF. The Chief Minister reiterated that an Expert Appraisal Committee of MoEF be directed to consider the case for granting environmental clearance regarding 95 mining projects under category ‘A’ which were submitted to the ministry more than four months back in the month of June, 2012.

Badal further requested the Prime Minister to advise the MoEF to empower the state authority for considering the environment clearance of the minor mineral projects irrespective of its area by amending the schedule to the Ministry’s notification dated September 14, 2006 besides all the mineral projects of an area less than 5 hectares be considered in the B-2 category projects so that their environmental clearances could be obtained in minimum possible time schedule. Likewise, Mr. Badal also recommended exemption from obtaining environmental clearance for minor mineral projects of ordinary earth and brick earth etc. wherein depth of mining does not exceed 6 feet, apart from the general condition in schedule of the EIA Notification, 2006 that any project or activity specified in category ‘B’ would be treated as category ‘A’ if located in whole or in part within the 10 Km from the interstate and international boundaries be reduced to 1 Km.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister also wrote to the Union Minister of State Environment and Forests Jayanthi Natarajan in light of his meeting with her on December 3, 2012. Badal informed her that she had realized the gravity of situation and assured of an early action to grant environmental clearance projects in the meeting. “Needless to say, delay of every single day is adding to the distress nearly halting all major infrastructural projects. Since no clearance has been received so far, May I once  again request you personally intervene in the matter and grant early environment clearance to the 95 pending mining projects.”, said Badal.