In a move to exempt building construction work from the environment appraisal process, the Environment Ministry has come up with a draft standard approval procedure for the sector with serious concerns being raised by environment experts.
According to the environment ministry, the draft Building Construction Environment Management Regulations, 2022 was necessitated to put in place “standardised, outcome-based and quantifiable environmental regulations so as to bring in transparency in approach and encourage ease of doing business”.
The ministry had constituted an Expert Committee in January 2021 to examine and recommend regulations for building construction and township projects and it examined the existing local bye-laws of states along with the existing regulatory regime for granting Environment Clearance and submitted a report on the proposed regulation for environmental protection.
The present standard approval procedure for the building construction sector is in continuity with similar procedures already in place for some other sectors to ensure ease of doing business.
“It is also considered necessary to expand the monitoring mechanism through third-party audits, encouraging green certifications and leveraging on the presence of regulatory agencies at different levels of governance while retaining the overall superintendence of regulatory framework with the Central Government,” said the draft notification by the ministry.
Environment experts said that the move is to exempt building construction work from the environment appraisal process that appraises every single project based on its merit and demerits to study the impact it can cause on the environment.
“The Draft Environment Impact Assessment 2020 exempted expert environment appraisal for most of these. Slowly standardisation is replacing appraisal,” said India Environment Matters, a platform started by two young environment and legal researchers – Meenakshi Kapoor and Krithika A Dinesh. The draft notification will be in the public domain for 60 days for comments before it is notified.
