Environment ministry pitches for green compliance over closure of violating industry in coastal areas
SECTIONS
Share
Synopsis
Operation in ecologically sensitive areas like coastal areas without prior green clearances usually invites legal action, fines and even closures. Hundreds of projects are said to be operating across coastal areas without prior approvals.
Agencies
This implementation will be overseen and enforced by the State CZMA/Environment department.
The Environment ministry is increasingly shifting to its new mantra – of bringing in prospective green clearances and environmental compensation regime to bring in ‘compliance’ rather than ‘closure’ of industry for violations.
Operation in ecologically sensitive areas like coastal areas without prior green clearances usually invites legal action, fines and even closures. Hundreds of projects are said to be operating across coastal areas without prior approvals.
Representational image. | Shailesh Andrade/ Reuters
India’s environment ministry has come out with a set of rules which facilitates any industrial project that starts in an ecologically sensitive coastal zone without required permissions, to compensate by paying for a conservation and environmental management plan, and avoid the risk of closure.
On February 19, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change sent an “office memorandum” to all coastal states detailing the procedure for dealing with violations by industries starting projects without obtaining a valid Coastal Regulation Zone clearance.
The ministry’s order held that for “protecting and improving the quality of the coastal environment and abating the coastal environmental pollution, it is necessary that all entities not complying with Coastal Regulation Zone notification be brought under compliance of the environmental statutes in an expedient manner”.