An Op-Ed that @INCIndia President, Smt. #SoniaGandhi wrote for @the_hindu today, urging the @NarendraModi Government to stop the dismantling of environmental rules and asking the Government for the withdrawal of Draft EIA Notification, 2020.
#WithdrawEIA2020
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Stop the dismantling of environmental rules

The government has a social obligation to protect the environment; it must withdraw the Draft EIA 2020 Notification

: #SoniaGandhi
#WithdrawEIA2020

The Sanskrit words, ‘Prakriti Rakshati Rakshita’, greet visitors at the Indira Paryavaran Bhawan, the home of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, (MoEF&CC). They mean ‘nature protects, if she is protected’.
#SoniaGandhi
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This ancient Indic wisdom inspired Indira Gandhi throughout her life, as referenced in many of her letters and files. She shared a deep kinship with nature.
She was also cognisant the environment cannot be protected without eradicating poverty.
: #SoniaGandhi
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The origins and spread of the global novel corona virus pandemic and its catastrophic impact are a warning to the world. The protection of the environment must go hand in hand with promoting public health and access to dignified livelihoods for all.
: #SoniaGandhi
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Erosion of framework
India with its biodiversity & inequality must pay heed. We've often sacrificed the environment & people's rights while chasing the chimera of unbridled economic growth. Progress requires trade-offs but there must be boundaries
: #SoniaGandhi
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Over the past 6 years, the government has thoughtlessly — or worse, with intent — eroded our environmental protection framework.
: #SoniaGandhi
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Biennial global Environmental Performance Index has consistently put India at the bottom of its rankings. We were an alarming 177/180 in 2018, faring badly on all indicators- environmental health policy, biodiversity & habitat, air & water pollution & climate change
: #SoniaGandhi

The pandemic should have made the government reflect and reconsider its environmental and public health governance. Instead, the Ministry is handing out clearances during the lockdown without proper public consultations.

: #SoniaGandhi
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The announcement of coal auctions by the Prime Minister @narendramodi in previously declared ‘no go’ areas, signals that the government is in no mood to course-correct.

: #SoniaGandhi
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The disastrous Draft Environmental Impact Assessment, 2020 Notification, which among other provisions, gives a clean chit to polluters violating environmental regulations through ex-post facto approvals, will unleash unprecedented devastation.
: #SoniaGandhi
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Opaque reviews

It was apparent that a @NarendraModi-led Bharatiya Janata Party government would be destructive to India’s environment going by Mr. Modi’s track record in Gujarat as Chief Minister.

: #SoniaGandhi
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During the 2014 campaign, @NarendraModi slandered the UPA Gov & Environment Ministry for being an impediment to growth. From the start, his gov has desperately projected an image of ‘Ease of Doing Business’ to the world, mindless of consequences.

: #SoniaGandhi
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The Modi Gujarat Government formed multiple committees, diluted laws and regulations across the board, and opened up vast tracts of forest land to a select few in the private sector.

: #SoniaGandhi
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In 2014, T.S.R. Subramanian Committee was set up to review six major environmental laws. Another committee was formed to amend Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ), 2011 Notification. Both faced immense criticism for opacity & not consulting a wide range of stakeholders.
#SoniaGandhi

The TSR Committee Report was never released, but some of its recommendations were surreptitiously implemented.

: #SoniaGandhi
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2018 CRZ Notification was rejected by National Fishworkers Forum & others, for threatening livelihoods of fishing communities & destroying coastal ecology along India’s 7,500-km long coastline. They contribute more than ₹50,000 crore annually to the Indian economy.
#SoniaGandhi

The Fishing Community are severely impacted by climate change and natural disasters and are left to fend for themselves by the government.

: #SoniaGandhi
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Likewise, the National Board for Wildlife, the Forest Advisory Committee and Expert Appraisal Committees are approving projects in and around protected wildlife areas without following due process.

: #SoniaGandhi
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The North Indian plains and the National Capital Region are engulfed in a debilitating smog year after year. According to a study in British journal, The Lancet, 12.4 lakh deaths i.e. 12.5% of deaths in India in 2017, could be attributed to air pollution.
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Yet, there's been no concerted action to address this public health emergency. Instead of stringent measures to control thermal power plant emissions from thermal, the gov. extended compliance deadlines & made a U-turn on clean coal.

: #SoniaGandhi
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Attack on Adivasis

The government’s greatest assault has been reserved for the land and the rights of Adivasis and other traditional forest dwellers.

: #SoniaGandhi
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Historic Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006 was passed by UPA I to undo centuries of injustice. Cultural traditions & global experience demonstrated well-defined land rights to forest dwellers are beneficial for marginalised populations & the environment
: #SoniaGandhi
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The twisted interpretation and shoddy implementation of the FRA, 2006, has led to Adivasis and forest-dwelling communities being harassed by the Forest Department. Their legal claims to land are buried in bureaucracy.

: #SoniaGandhi
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The FRA link to project approvals has been abandoned in practice, and the curtailment or elimination of public hearings means that civil society and independent or concerned voices are muzzled.

: #SoniaGandhi
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Indira Gandhi had once said that forest development corporations had become forest destruction corporations. The veracity of her observation is borne out by several proposals or actions that militate against the interests of forest dwellers.

: #SoniaGandhi
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For eg, there is a proposal to overhaul the colonial Indian Forest Act, 1927 to give enhanced policing & quasi-judicial powers to forest officials. It gives forest officials powers to use firearms with unjustified levels of immunity from prosecution
: #SoniaGandhi
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Earlier, the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016 was passed by the government in both Houses of Parliament, ignoring the Opposition which pointed out that it bypasses the FRA, 2006, and disempowers Adivasis, forest dwellers and gram sabhas.

: #SoniaGandhi
#WithdrawEIA2020

Promote public health
Citing reforms, Gov rolled out the red carpet for crony capitalists, systematically disenfranchised marginalised & vulnerable populations, abandoned its responsibility to commitments on climate change & environmental protection
: #SoniaGandhi
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Gov should recognise it has a social obligation to protect the environment & promote public health. Environmental protection framework is not a regulatory burden & it must incentivise industry to shift its mindset from clearances to compliance
: #SoniaGandhi
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The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector must be subsidised to follow green norms.

: #SoniaGandhi
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Nobody denies India needs a modern EIA framework based on scientific knowledge, public participation & social audits. The concept of cumulative impacts of projects on the Ganga must be adopted. You cannot have ‘Nirmal Ganga’ without ‘Aviral Ganga’.
: #SoniaGandhi
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India as a green hub
The Gov must stop dismantling India’s environmental regulations. An essential first step is to withdraw the Draft EIA 2020 Notification.

: #SoniaGandhi
#WithdrawEIA2020

What is essential is widespread public consultation to shape a national agenda that will place India at the forefront of the battle against global warming and pandemics.

: #SoniaGandhi
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We have an incredible opportunity to reset our economy and demonstrate leadership to the world with a growth strategy that transforms India into a green manufacturing hub.
#SoniaGandhi
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The erstwhile Planning Commission’s expert group report on low carbon growth strategy and the many suggestions in the 2019 @INCIndia Manifesto can be a starting point.

: #SoniaGandhi
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In times of mass reverse migration, environment protection through public works programs including afforestation & watershed development, can be turned into a grass-roots movement involving youth, women, communities, gram sabhas and NGOs.
: #SoniaGandhi
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Indira Gandhi was the first major world leader to recognise the environmental crisis confronting the world in Stockholm in June 1972. Can India once again rise to the greatest challenges of the 21st century?

: #SoniaGandhi
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