Green assessment report system is flawed,says Jairam

Terming the present system of preparing environmental assessment report as flawed,Environment and Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh.

Terming the present system of preparing environmental assessment report as flawed,Environment and Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh on Saturday said third-party opinion would now be sought to evaluate various projects under the ministry.

The minister also ridiculed the present system of preparing environmental assessment report as a joke and said the ministry would take third-party opinion on environmental projects like coal,power and construction of ports.

Environmental impact assessment report is bit of joke. I admit it publicly. In our system the person who is putting up the project will be preparing the assessment report. I have been very concerned about this. Supreme Court has also expressed its concern, Ramesh told reporters on the sidelines of Green Landscape Summit-2011 organised by CII.

Story continues below this ad

He said the ministry has accredited more than 200 consultants who are authorised to prepare environmental assessment reports and the government would accept their assessment.

We have done the satellite mapping of all wet lands in the country. We have wetland Atlas of every state which will be released by month-end. So far we did not follow scientific approach of wetland management as in revenue record,wet land is recorded as waste land. All these are legacies of the past. We will clean up the system, Ramesh said.

He,however,cautioned that if government finds that there were misrepresentations in the consultants report,they would cancel the accreditation.

We have blacklisted three consultants for producing fraudulent environmental assessment report, he said.