Minister, Deputy & Secy gone, new Boss has quite a headache

No 1 on Bais’s agenda is Baalu’s brainchild, a notification making Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) compulsory for commercial and private buildings. This would have checked the indiscriminate construction of malls, cinema halls and residential complexes without taking into account the sewage and waste they generate.

The notification was issued on October 28 and the mandatory 60-day period ended on December 28. A meeting was fixed to finalise it but Baalu walked out two days earlier.

For Bais now, it may not be priority. Especially, since a number of ‘‘objections’’ to the notification have come from the usual suspects—not surprising given the additional cost that builders have to incur.

Not just this, March 31 is the Cabinet deadline to streamline other processes in the Ministry. But with the government slipping into caretaker mode in less than a month, among the key reforms likely to get stalled:

• The National Environment Policy, pending for 54 years. The Ministry formulated a draft policy to identify thrust areas, state realistic objectives and specify how it will get resources to meet them.

One example is forestry — the target is to increase forest cover from 23% to 33% by the year 2012. ‘‘For this we need an additional Rs 8,000 crore to what is sanctioned. We have to generate it from some other source,’’ said Bais.

• Among the other portfolios he has held is mining. ‘‘I am aware that there are serious roadblocks in the clearance system causing delays,’’ he said. Bais is also from Chhattisgarh, a state known for its forest cover and and mineral wealth. Ironically, Judeo was seen accepting money claiming to clear mining leases in the state.

• The other major problem with the Ministry is reviewing of Forest Diversion Clearance procedures. Most bureaucrats spend more time replying to the Supreme Court on all forest cases because of the large number of PILs on the issue.