Draft EIA notification may turn State into a desert, says Alagiri

TNCC chief accuses Centre of trying to protect corporates

by · The Hindu

If the draft notification of the Environment Impact Assessment 2020 becomes law, Tamil Nadu might end up becoming a desert as the notification has given exemption to various projects such as oil and gas exploration, shale gas exploration, methane and coal, among others, and the draft seems to be aimed at Tamil Nadu, TNCC president K.S. Alagiri said.

Even if all political parties oppose the draft, the State government has the duty to prevent it from becoming a law as the draft was against the State’s interest, he said, urging the Chief Minister to take immediate action.

Slamming the Centre for the various proposals in the draft, Mr. Alagiri said these were aimed at protecting the corporates and would make the 2006 notification infructuous.

“It will help usurp land from farmers and private landowners. The National Highways Authority of India’s submission in the Supreme Court that there is no need for environmental clearance for the Chennai-Salem eight-lane expressway shows that the draft EIA is targeted at Tamil Nadu,” he said.

Mr. Alagiri said the Centre, with its brute majority in Parliament, believed that it could push through legislation without consultations or people’s support.

“The loss of ecology, consequent to the damage that will be done because of this current notification, can never be offset at any time. The 2006 EIA notification was brought in with various precautions to protect the environment and the people. This should not be changed,” he said.