The chief minister’s latest take on environmental clearances for mining leases that are coming alive, defies logic and will struggle to stand the test of legal scrutiny. He said on Wednesday “ECs would be granted to the lease holders within four to eight weeks of them applying, given that the ECs were revoked and not cancelled. The lease holder will not have to go for fresh ECs. The ECs exist, but were revoked by the Union ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF). There will not be any fresh public hearings.”
There is a contradiction in the statement itself. On one hand he says that the lease holder will be given an EC within four to eight weeks of applying. On the other hand, he says that the lease holder will not have to “go for” fresh EC’s. To “go for” is akin to applying afresh.
But let us leave the confusion, which could be due to bad semantics if not bad logic, and examine facts. Whether the decision was political or not, India’s Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan suspended the environmental clearances for all working leases which included the 27 leases whose renewals will now be executed. The Supreme Court was very explicit that all leases will be treated as fresh ones and that by implication means that ECs have to be sought afresh. But before we even get there, the chief minister must not take leave of the fact that suspending the ECs was not akin to Jayanthi Natarajan switching them off for two years, only to be switched on by Prakash Javdekar, Modi’s Environment Minister. They were suspended, with the proviso that they would be renewed only if the process for granting them were examined. An expert advisory committee (EAC) was formed to re examine the issue of granting ECs. It was important for the chief minister to refer to this committee and the information he has about the status of its examination. There is absolutely nothing on record to suggest either that the committee has been disbanded and that an order has been issued to revoke the suspension of EC licenses and unfortunately the chief minister is not in control of either of these two actions. Therefore, his announcement that fresh EC clearances will not be required, is actually an out of jurisdiction comment. This might sound harsh but the fact is this. The environment clearances were not suspended with the Goa chief minister’s permission and therefore shall not be revoked with his permission either.
Moving on, this is a fresh beginning. Underlying all activity that takes place with the restart of mining is the commitment that the new beginning will be devoid of old failings. So whatever you call this – renewals or fresh leases, it amounts to a commencement under fresh guidelines. At this juncture it is crucial to point out that the Department of Science and Technology, Government of Goa had commissioned Professor Madhav Gadgil to study the process of granting ECs for all leases in Goa and his damning report which clearly said that not one of the 97 leases had its EC granted by following due process. He questioned the way public hearings were conducted and laid down a clear process for doing this, stating that ECs should be granted afresh. This report, commissioned by the Parrikar government, has actually vanished from the public domain. If a genuine clean up is desired, then the CM must walk and talk and make this Gadgil report an important document for the expert advisory committee of the MOEF.
The reason why this is so important is because there is no point in pushing ECs or renewing leases when the original petitioner is waiting to go to the Supreme Court on each of these issues. The government cannot afford another legal setback where it finds itself on the wrong side of any effort to have mining which is process and rule driven, and not the ad hoc mess it had become.
The chief minister must realise that he is doing greater damage to the mining affected and the industry by taking decisions that won’t stand the test of time or law.
