The Election Commission (EC) has allowed the Environment Ministry to issue green clearances during the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) period after initially refusing permission to do so. On March 23, a week after the Lok Sabha Elections were announced on March 16, the Environment Ministry had requested the EC to permit the issuance of Environmental, Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ), Forest and Wildlife clearances as this had been allowed during the 2019 general elections. On March 28, the poll panel informed the ministry that the proposal “to grant general exemption till the completion of the election process cannot be acceded to”. Following the refusal, the Environment Ministry again wrote to the EC on April 2, pointing out that such clearances “involve a long process… spanning over more than a year” from the conceptualisation stage. “It would also be relevant to mention here that such Clearances are not in any way related to sanction of new projects and in fact, the application for grant of the aforesaid clearances have been submitted much before the MCC came into force on 16th March 2024 and have been in process over the past few months,” the letter said. The Environment Ministry had argued its case on similar lines in 2019 as well. Stating that the EC had no objection when a similar clarification was sought in March 2019, the ministry’s April 2 letter requested the panel to “reconsider its stand”. On April 10, the EC wrote back that it “has no objection, from MCC angle” to the Environment Ministry’s proposal. “The process of project proposal evaluation and clearances was exempted from model code restrictions even before the 2014 polls. The ministry thinks it fit to take a formal approval every time. If there was any confusion, the issue has now been resolved,” said an Environment Ministry official.
