4 hrs ago
Assam Forms Expert Panels to Strengthen Environmental Clearances
Assam has created two groups to help review projects that need environmental permission.
One group will study projects and give recommendations.
The other group will make decisions using those recommendations.
Both groups will serve for four years.
Their chairmen and members include retired officials, university academics and environmental experts.
The expert group will try to agree when it considers each case.
If its members cannot agree, the majority view will be used.
Both groups will work from the Assam Pollution Control Board building in Guwahati.
Assam has constituted the State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority and State Level Expert Appraisal Committee.
Their formation follows a Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change notification issued on October 6.
Both bodies will serve four-year terms beginning from publication of the notification in the Official Gazette.
The authority will decide environmental clearance applications based on recommendations from the expert committee.
Both bodies will operate from the Assam Pollution Control Board building in Guwahati, which will provide secretariat support.
- Who
- The Assam government; the new bodies are chaired by Shyamanta Bezbarua and Jatindra Sarma, respectively.
- What
- Assam constituted the State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority and the State Level Expert Appraisal Committee.
- Where
- Their offices are on the third floor of the Assam Pollution Control Board building at Bamunimaidam, Guwahati.
- When
- The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change issued the relevant notification on October 6; the bodies will serve four years from its publication in the Official Gazette.
- Why
- To strengthen the state's institutional framework for evaluating projects requiring environmental clearance.
Key facts
- Bodies constituted
- State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and State Level Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC)
- Tenure
- Four years from publication of the Central government notification in the Official Gazette
- SEIAA chairman
- Shyamanta Bezbarua, retired former Secretary of the Assam Public Works Department (Building and National Highway)
- SEAC chairman
- Jatindra Sarma, IFS (Retd.), former Chief Conservator of Forests and Field Director of Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve
- Decision process
- SEIAA decisions on environmental clearance applications will be based on SEAC recommendations
- SEAC deliberations
- The committee will seek consensus; if consensus is not reached, the majority view will prevail
- Office and support
- Both bodies are based at the Assam Pollution Control Board building in Bamunimaidam, Guwahati; the board will provide secretariat and operational support
Sources
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