* High-level Committee constituted to review six laws, asked to submit its report by October 29
By Kartik Lokhande
Various
laws related to environment and forest have provisions that have become
outdated and some have proven to be roadblocks in development. Against
this backdrop, there has been demand from various quarters since long to
review these. Union Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate
Change has constituted a High-level Committee to ‘review’ the
environmental laws and suggest amendments.
Some time ago, during his
visit to city-based National Environmental Engineering Research
Institute (NEERI), the Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar had
hinted that the Central Government would look into the matter of
‘review’ of environmental laws. Accordingly, the Union Ministry of
Environment, Forests, and Climate Change has constituted the committee.
The committee under T S R Subramanian, former Cabinet Secretary, has
been entrusted with the task of ‘review’ the laws and submit
recommendations by October 29.
The committee has been asked to look
into six laws. These include Environment (Protection) Act, 1986; Forest
(Conservation) Act, 1980; Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972; The Water
(Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974; and The Air (Prevention
and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981; and The Indian Forest Act, 1927.
As per the notification issued by the Ministry, the decision of review
has been taken ‘based on experience gained in the implementation of the
aforesaid Acts’.
The committee comprises T S R Subramanian as
Chairman; and Viswanath Anand, Justice (retd) A K Srivastav, K N Bhat as
Members. Subramanian is former Cabinet Secretary. Vishwanath Anand is
former Secretary of Union Ministry of Environment and Forests; Justice A
K Srivastav retired from Delhi High Court; and Bhat is senior Supreme
Court lawyer as well as former Additional Solicitor General of India.
Bishwanath Sinha, Joint Secretary of the Ministry; and Hardik Shah,
Member Secretary of Gujarat State Pollution Control Board, will be the
Secretaries of the committee.
The Office Memorandum issued by the
Ministry in this regard spells out the ‘terms of reference’ of the
committee. The panel has been asked to ‘assess the status of
implementation’ of each of the aforesaid Acts vis-a-vis objectives;
‘examine’ and take into account various court orders and judicial
pronouncements relating to these Acts; recommend ‘specific’ amendments
needed to bring them in line with current requirements to meet
objectives; and draft proposed amendments in each of the aforesaid Acts
to give effect to proposed recommendations.
Most of these laws are
quite old. They have many provisions relevant at the time of enactment.
Of these six laws being considered for review, The Indian Forest Act
dates back to 1927. It is 87 years old! Environment (Protection) Act is
28 years old, Forest (Conservation) Act dates back to 34 years, Wildlife
(Protection) Act is 42 years old, The Water (Prevention and Control of
Pollution) Act is 40 years old, and The Air (Prevention and Control of
Pollution) Act is 27 years old.
For years, there has been demand
from various quarters to amend The Indian Forest Act. The British-era
law was based on the Indian Forest Act of 1878, and aimed at
consolidating the law relating to forests, the transit of forest produce
and the duty leviable on timber and other forest-produce. However, many
of its provisions including those related to penalty are not relevant
today. For instance, it has a penal provision of imprisonment up to six
months or penalty up to Rs 500 only for felling of trees or other
offences.
During the regime of United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
Government, amendments were proposed to The Indian Forest Act, but the
Bill for the same lapsed with the dissolution of the Lok Sabha. The Bill
has proposed to increase penalty from Rs 50 to Rs 10,000 for various
offences.
(Published in The Hitavada CityLine on October 27, 2014)
Comments
Post a Comment