Comments Submitted to Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Specific to provisions for Inland Waterways in the EIA Notification, 2020 (Draft)

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) published the draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2020 on its website for public comments on 12th March 2020.The new draft weakens an already weak environmental assessment and clearance regime i.e. EIA Notification 2006. To push this through when the whole country is under lock down and there is little chance of public consultation on the new draft especially among communities who are not connected on internet or do not follow English is totally unacceptable. We join the call given by many others to MoEFCC to withdraw the draft.

However, in the likely event that this does not happen, apart from overall comments, Manthan Adhyayan Kendra has also prepared comments specific to provisions for Inland Waterways in the EIA Notification, 2020 (Draft).

Date of Submission: 29th April 2020