Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma has protested, on behalf of the corporate sector, against the Union environment and forests ministry's 'unreasonable environment regulations' being clamped on the industrial projects.
Sharma particularly objected to the environment ministry insisting that 5 per cent of the investment be earmarked for 'corporate environmental responsibility' when the environment impact assessment of large projects is done.
In a letter to Minister of State for Environment Jayanthi Natarajan, Sharma claimed that such a demand is 'beyond the remit of the ministry' as even a CSR (corporate social responsibility) agenda is administrated voluntarily and not mandated by the government.
Apprising her of strong apprehensions of the industry captains on certain regulatory aspects that were also raised in a meeting with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee earlier this month, Sharma sought the reversal of the new policy circular for environment clearances in a sequential order rather than proceed parallely as was done earlier.
Sharma pointed out that the environment clearances for power/industrial plants typically take 9 to 12 months, clearances for diversion of forest land for such projects takes around 1 to 2 years, and clearances for diversion of forest land for coal mines take a similar amount of time.
However, if they are to be considered in a sequential order, it will lead to "enormous delays in crucial projects especially in the core sector of economy, with a cascading impact on growth of infrastructure in India", Sharma warned.
Asking Natarajan to personally intervene and invoke necessary correctives that allay the industry chieftains' misapprehensions on the environment policy, he pointed out that the finance minister has already assured them to address the matter expeditiously.
