EIA 2020 REPRESENTATIONS

GANGA BECKONS

Ganga is not a river. Ganga is a complete universe. We abound therein. The ecology, environment, bio-diversity and approx. 50% population of India surviving because of Ganga is ENDANGERED.

At the first National Conclave for Ganga, an assembly of Indians concerned for Ganga gathered at YWCA, New Delhi and deliberated for a day and found that all was not well and there was a huge mismatch between the claims on the good done to save Ganga by national authorities and the plight of Ganga on ground.

National Conclave for Ganga devoted to create a national awakening for Ganga.

Ganga water improved in its quality and clarity during lockdown for free whereas it continued to deteriorate despite lakhs of crores spent on cleaning it since 1985. Is this a scam? If No, what is the harm in investigating! Some questions- Why Ganga decended from Heavens on earth? What was the purpose of invoking her avataar? If Ganga answered the bhakti of ‘Bhagiratha’ to grant ‘Moksha’ to the ‘soul of his ancestors (pitar) and decended to Earth then she mothers the people who worship her as ‘Maa Ganga”.

In this family of ‘We the People’ the mother is put to peril then is it not foolhardy and naive for her children ‘The People’ to believe that those who are putting their mother to peril are doing it for them? We question the policy makers integrity? WE do not accuse. We appeal to the conscience for in each consceience resides the Supreme Being by whatever name believed and worshipped. Jai Ganga.

Representation to the government on EIA 2020 voicing our concerns felt for Ganga seeking these be addressed by the policy maker.

P S SHARDA

pssharda@hotmail.com May 04, 2020 To

Sh. Chandra Kishore Mishra

Secretary (EF&CC)

Indra Paryavaran Bhawan, Jor Bagh, New Delhi-110003

Dear Sir,

Sub: Draft EIA 2020

Draft EIA notification 2020 was released in public domain on 12.03.2020 and invited comments from the public within sixty days.

However, since 25th March 2020 public at large has been locked down due to failure on part of the government in the health sector having not even planned infrastructure to meet the outside chance of a pandemic. The public was completely isolated from each other as priority of immediate survival took over. Expecting public to fairly avail of the opportunity of participation in development of the EIA 2020 in the given ‘sixty days’ is to say the least ‘blatantly unfair’ especially when the way of life has been advertised by the government as ‘Social Distancing’ rather than ‘Physical Distancing’ and ‘Social Bonding’.

In all fairness the process of notification inviting public response should be extended. This is necessary to meet the test of fairness envisaged under the constitution. The draft EIA is a long document and does require a lot of discussion and consultations for being commented upon.

The concept of ‘dredging’, 3(8), itself is not adequately defined. The absence of standards for the ensuring dredging does not harm the river path itself or destroy the aqua life forms is alarming. This needs to be discussed further before the draft can be considered holistic.

On a bare perusal though the dictum of ‘Public Consultation in Section 3 (46) apparently needs to be reconsidered and adequately redrafted. As presently worded it appears the drafters of the EIA take too much for granted. Sadly, I am unable to persuade myself to believe that the (Project Proponents) can be taken for granted in this regard. The snow white will be lost in translation if not suitably insulated by redrafting the prescription based on real time pathetic experience at the ground level. I can suggest alternative but need more time to suggest an appropriate draft. Similarly, the wording in section 14 of the draft EIA is very flexible and subjective and can deliver the purpose of the notification by being fine tuned for meaningful delivery.

I also notice that there is no system of transparent appointment of persons to EAC. The wording of section 6 arbitrarily discriminates against Advocates in continuous practice at the Bar. It seems to have been overlooked by the drafters that a post graduate in law is not necessarily an Advocate. An advocate is in itself the most suited qualification for the purpose and a constitutionally recognised one. Such an oversight indicates a need craving to be corrected.

There are further issues in the draft including wording of section 16 and I understand several public spirited organisations have also sought time for filing response in light of pandemic plaguing public dialogue at present. I request that the ministry not rush the draft. Public including me needs more time to understand and respond to the detailed draft which appears to have been put together with lot of concerns to meet specific needs and demands.

I request an opportunity of personal hearing to make my presentation be granted to me plus one with at least a week’s prior notice.

Nation building is every citizens concern

Yours on that way

P S Sharda

9810077120

109, M M House, 59, Rani Jhansi Road, New Delhi-110055 With Ajay Raizada; Alpna Malik; Richa Verma; Dinesh Kumar; CA Repudaman Thakur; CA Chetan Verma; Sandeep Kumar; Vivek Sharma; Ajay Kumar; Krishna Kumar New Delhi

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

NATIONAL CONCLAVE FOR GANGA

109, M. M. House, 59, Rani Jhansi Road, New Delhi-110055

PARTICIPANTS June 05, 2020 For National Conclave for Ganga

Gangapeople@gmail.com

Gangapeople.org

Sh. Chandra Kishore Mishra

Secretary

(EF&CC)

Indra Paryavaran Bhawan,

Jor Bagh, New Delhi-110003

Dear Sir, Sub: Draft EIA 2020

A. 2nd National Conclave for Ganga was held on May 16.5.2020 via Zoom. Participants from West Bengal; Bihar; Uttar Pradesh; Uttrakhand; Haryana: Chhattisgarh; Jharkhand; Delhi took part and shared their views.

B. During the deliberations following important perspectives emerged that need to be considered while finalising the draft EIA 2020 and be added to our representation dated May 4, 2020 already sent and we reiterate we be heard in the matter before the draft is finalised: i) Cost Benefit Analysis must be mandatory in all cases of environment clearances;

ia) Cost Benefit Analysis should be a Continuous and Comprehensive;

ib) EIA should cover Municipality and a Municipal Council, Gaon Sabha, Panchayat, Local body, Cantonment Board or Authority by whatever name called; ic) The Categorisation of certain projects like waterways in Category B that needs no EIA or public hearing needs to rethought to ensure that there are no short cuts to side step mandate of public hearing or dialogue in EIA;

id) The Chairman of DEIAA should not be the District Magistrate since he also grants approval to industries and cannot be expected to sit in review as Chair of DEIAA;

ii) The provision for protection of whistle blowers must form part of EIA;

iii) EIA should include making provisions for need based environmental lockdown to provide breather to the land, river and its tributary as be necessary;

iv) EIA should provide that performance of national environment protection duty shall be compulsory for every citizen when called for by the Authority not more than once in a lifetime regardless of his status or position in society and be allocated from among local members of the public randomly selected on basis of local electoral rolls random selection technique and shall be for a period of not more than one month. Such an appointment shall be mandatory for every student who joins college stream on attaining age of majority through the NSS programme on same basis.

v) Such citizens shall be designated as Pollution Prevention Field Officer (PPFO) for every ward equal to three per kilometre within five kilometres on either side of the bank of the river or three kilometres in case of a tributary that runs in the area of the ward. PPFO should be empowered to prevent waste disposal into a river or its tributary and to require the authority to impose local lockdown of polluting industry/hotel/eatery at the point of spillage into the river or its tributary. PPFO’s should also be appointed for air polluting land based polluting industry/hotel/eater, Municipality and a Municipal Council, Gaon Sabha, Panchayat, Local body, Cantonment Board or Authority by whatever name called with similar powers;

vi) EIA should include forming a national web portal that shall map five kilometres on either side of the river and its tributaries and disclose name, particulars, license and environment clearance of every unit within five kilometres of the river banks on either side and a complete list of industries existing on the banks of rivers or their tributaries with conditions of compliance imposed by Authority and disclose plans to free the river and its tributary from such entities in a specified time frame. Similarly EIA should also provide that no national highway shall run through a city or ward and that the closest entry into a city from a national or state highway shall not be less than five kilometres from the national highway or two kilometres of the state highway and there shall be no building or structure within five kilometres on either side of any highway. For the existing highways in conflict with such mandate suitable plans and decongestion plans shall be framed and implemented in a predetermined time span. The required funds shall be recovered from the polluters and by charge of rectification and environment course correction cess to be applied exclusively for that purpose;

vii) EIA should empower the Authority to lay down the optimal sustainable level of technology and software in electronic goods like mobile phones, computers and car industry using batteries and software. It should have the authority to mandate minimum sustainable period wherein every manufacturer must guarantee performance of its product to same specifications during such period of its usage capability for new additional software update, if any, introduced within the said minimum sustainable period;

viii) For any urban development plan in future and those still on paper it should be mandatory that the optimal land utilisation level must be specified and for those cities that have mushroomed, the same be discovered, and where the optimal level has been achieved no fresh development shall be permissible and conflicting construction beyond the optimal level that may already be inhabited should be streamlined to make it compliant in a phased manner. We demand an open national debate on the draft EIA 2020.

National Conclave for Ganga is a suo-moto voluntary group of citizens including experts, activist citizens, environmentalists, spiritualists, Saints, Sadhus, Tapasvies, lawyers, chartered accountants, engineers, doctors, information technologists, river experts, professors of IIT’s, IIM’s, NGO’s, retired senior citizens, researchers who assemble and confer on the sustenance of river Ganga and the environment, ecology, biodiversity and population dependant on it in a peaceful, co-operative, non-violent, persuasive, educated, free willed and concerned to voice the environmental endeavour at all levels to protect and heal the same.

A sea change of natural positive development in the quality of environment and the clarity and flow of water in rivers across the country especially Yamuna in Delhi and Ganga in its upper reaches and at Kanpur, Varanasi and even at Kolkata during the lockdown is now beyond debate and inescapable as seen from our following findings at Nabadwip West Bengal where river Jalangi meets river Bhagirathi on June 02, 2020:

TDS-165ppm; pH-8; DO- 8mg/l; Ec-365 um; smell- not present.

Such providential environmental improvement laid bare the colossus failure by institutions complacently watching pollutant outpour into our rivers, the tributaries, and environment in name of fake development. The hidden cost imposed on people thus, shockingly not yet factored, and has to halt, here and now.

Draft EIA notification 2020 was released in public domain on 12.03.2020 but given the lockdown extension had been sought vide communication dated May 4, 2020 (Copy attached) we urge you, respectfully, to take this representation also on record in addition to our initial submissions and not rush the draft.

We also request an opportunity of making our presentation through our delegation in support of our presentation with at least a week’s prior intimation.

Nation building is every citizens concern

Yours on that way

P S Sharda 9810077120

For National Conclave for Ganga 109, M. M. House, 59, Rani Jhansi Road, New Delhi-110055 New Delhi

WITH

Ms. Jagriti Rahi, Ms. Indu Sharma; Ms. Neelam Sharma; Ms. Varsha Verma; Ms. Pratibha Shukla; Ms. Neelkamal Bhardwaj; Ms. Jyoti Raina; Ms. Aprajita Sharma; Ms. Alpna Malik; Ms. Richa Verma; Ms. Suman Lata; Ajay Raizada Ajay Kumar; Krishna Kumar; Tapas Das; Prahlad Goenka; Kallol Roy, Bharat Jhunjhunwala; Devendra Bhargava; Supraatim Karmakar; Sanjay Kumar; Raj Kumar; P K Alley; Vivekanand Jha; Jaspal Singh Rawat; Vijesh Sharma; Anit Malik; Dinesh Kumar; Repudaman Thakur; Chetan Verma; Sandeep Kumar and others.