Serious,not so serious: MoEF panel to redefine offences

Like this,every category of commercial project has a set of not-so-serious violations.

For the first time,the Environment Ministry is set to categorise violations of conditions of green clearances given to commercial projects in a way that a variety of violations,conventionally considered grave,may end up being viewed as not so serious.

An expert committee,set up by the ministry to come up with this classification,has submitted its report recently in which it has recommended that a number of violations be classified as not so serious.

If a mining project pollutes any river in the vicinity,or if its operations threaten the existence of endangered flora and fauna,environmental watchdogs will consider them as not so serious offence.

Similarly,if owners of thermal power projects,for instance,do not monitor whether the plant is polluting the surrounding air with toxic fumes,such a violation will also be called not so serious.

Like this,every category of commercial project has a set of not-so-serious violations. The MoEF will take a call after 45 days,following comments from stakeholders.

The expert committee did this re-classification based on inputs from the field staff and officers who have been monitoring projects for years. With every environmental clearance that the ministry grants,it also attaches a bunch of riders,or conditions,failing which the clearance is liable to be cancelled. The ministry sends officials to the project site from time to time to inspect whether the conditions are being met.

The serious offences would be such that violating them even once will entail shutting of the project at once, said B Sengupta,chairman of the committee and former member secretary of Central Pollution Control Board.

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The catch with the not-so-serious ones is that project proponents will get a second,perhaps even third,chance if found violating them. For the serious ones,the projects are liable to be scrapped at once.

By calling them not so serious,we do not mean to take them lightly. While all violations are grave,not all violations can be equally important. Its a relative difference, a senior official of the ministry told The Indian Express.

The more obvious violations,however,have been categorised as serious,as expected.

In case of nuclear power plants,for instance,failing to regularly monitor radioactive pollutants in the air and water discharged has been termed serious. But if the same plant does not suitably treat non-radioactive water discharged and used within the plant,it would be not-so-serious.

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The committee report divides commercial projects into various categories nuclear plants,thermal power,mining projects,highways,oil and gas exploration,petroleum refinery etc and classifies the conditions.