by Punjabnewswire4u
CHANDIGARH, DEC 9
Seeking personal intervention of the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, the
Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today urged him to impress upon
the Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF) to get all the pending issues
examined expeditiously for early nod to the mining projects, as the
non-clearance by the Ministry has not only led to alarming scarcity of
construction material but could also cause law and order problems in the state.
In
a letter to the Prime Minister, Mr. Badal apprised him that Punjab had been
facing critical situation regarding unavailability of
construction material viz. Sand, Gravel, Bajri, Bricks etc. which had adversely
impacted the construction activity in the state due to pending issues with
MoEF. The Chief Minister reiterated that an Expert Appraisal Committee of MoEF
be directed to consider the case for granting environmental clearance regarding
95 mining projects under category ‘A’ which were submitted to the ministry more
than four months back in the month of June, 2012.
Mr.
Badal further requested the Prime Minister to advise the MoEF to empower the
state authority for considering the environment clearance of the minor mineral
projects irrespective of its area by amending the schedule to the Ministry’s
notification dated September 14, 2006 besides all the mineral projects of an
area less than 5 hectares be considered in the B-2 category projects so that
their environmental clearances could be obtained in minimum possible time
schedul.e
Likewise, Mr. Badal also recommended exemption from obtaining
environmental clearance for minor mineral projects of ordinary earth and brick
earth etc. wherein depth of mining does not exceed 6 feet, apart from the
general condition in schedule of the EIA Notification, 2006 that any project or
activity specified in category ‘B’ would be treated as category ‘A’ if located
in whole or in part within the 10 Km from the interstate and international
boundaries be reduced to 1 Km.
Meanwhile,
the Chief Minister also wrote to the Union Minister of State Environment &
Forests Mrs. Jayanthi Natarajan in light of his meeting with her on December 3,
2012. Mr. Badal informed her that she had realized the gravity of situation and
assured of an early action to grant environmental clearance projects in the
meeting. “Needless to say, delay of every single day is adding to the distress
nearly halting all major infrastructural projects. Since no clearance has been
received so far, May I once again request you personally intervene in the
matter and grant early environment clearance to the 95 pending mining
projects.”, said Mr. Badal.
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