Govt blames UPA, wants 3 more months to decide

With such a range of functions, the regulator, if set up, will substantially alter the scope of environmental governance in India. For, it will take most of the operational work out of the environment ministry’s purview, leaving the latter to focus just on framing policy guidelines.
The government’s repeated failure to meet the deadlines set by the SC and apparent reluctance has been perceived in some quarters as an attempt to hold on to the absolute power to grant clearances.

The ministry’s affidavit filed on Monday stated: “The new government has taken over only on 26th May 2014 and considering the serious nature of the matter, as also brought out by the Honb’le Supreme Court, the government wishes to finalise the framework of the proposed regulator/authority carefully.” Explaining the request for more time, the government said, “The delay in implementing court orders has occurred during the time of the previous government and the same should not result in making a hasty decision by the present government.”

The government informed the court that following a cabinet decision, it has constituted a panel of four ministers to prepare the framework for the national regulator.

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, transport minister Nitin Gadkari, power minister Piyush Goyal and chemicals and fertilisers minister Ananth Kumar are the members .

According to the affidavit, the ministers had their first meeting on September 8, in  which they noted that the consultation with state governments had been inadequate in the previous regime and so a meeting of the state environment ministers should be convened before deciding on the issue. This meeting has been fixed for October 15.

In the meeting, the ministers also discussed the “improvements brought in the environment clearance process during the tenure of the present government” regarding green clearances.

It apprised the court of instituting another committee that will review and draft amendments to the five key laws over environment, forest, wildlife, air and water. The high level committee, headed by former cabinet secretary T S R Subramanian, has been given two months to submit its report, which the government said would be “helpful in firming up the proposal for setting up the regulator”.