CEE April-June 2012

also the powerful decision makers-has become more a matter of housing, investment, and infrastructure building; land as a basis of livelihood-for subsistence, survival, social justice, and human dignity-has largely been lost. In addition to the government's initiative in making National Development Master Plan, industry should also ensure that it: • Should not acquire land in inappropriate proportions • Provides adequate compensation to the farmers. L Environment FT Business had the first feel of Environmental Regulation, when in the year 1974 Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act was enacted in the country. Since then , compilation on environmental laws and regulations has run into more than 1500 pages book of A-4 size . Today, we have the Best of the World's emission standards but worst of the compliance status and surprisingly the Government run! controlled organizations are far away from meeting these standards. The government, which has the responsibility to demonstrate compliance, has only imposed bureaucracy to regulate the private sector industry. The onslaught of environmental regulation business is witnessing today is going to be tougher in the days to come, which is obvious from the notices issued to the cement industry regarding installation of on line Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring (CMQM) stations and on line Continuous Stack Emission Monitors for real time data transfers to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), New Delhi by 31 st December 2011 and 31 st March 2012 respectively. Project related Environmental Clearances are taking indefinite time and frequent changes/clarifications on the EC Clearance process issued by the MoEF have further dampened the speed of clearance e.g. separate clearances needed even for integrated projects (MoEF Circular dated 24/12/201 0). Further, interestingly power endorsed to the state governments for grant of EC to the projects falling under category - B of the EIA Notification 2006 to expedite environmental clearances has become headache for the Industry, as the members of the State Level Expert Appraisal Committee in most of the States e.g. Rajasthan, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Odisha are only from the academic side and none from the industry or with industrial experience. Due to limited knowledge of the industry, it has become very difficult to make the committee members understand about the process and industry specific limitations which is resulting in delayed decision making e.g. Cement Grinding Units fall under category - B and therefore clearance needs to be issued by the State Government, but in one of the cases, the State Level Committee after issuing TORs and conducting Public Hearing etc. had stalled the process saying that the project proponent has to produce a letter to the State Government issued by the Central Government that that Grinding Units consisting of various machines capable of producing cement fall s under the State purview. From this instance, it is very obvious that the committee members have perhaps never seen any Grinding Unit and do not understand even the process and equipments employed in a grinding unit. Further, boost from the government on use of waste derived fuels and alternative raw materials is also totally missing, which is resulting in depletion of natural resources at faster speed on one hand, and land pollution I water pollution etc. on the other. Implementation of various conditions and regulatory standards in the country by the Central Government has no sound basis since no in-house studies to measure actual emission levels and find out their impact on the society have been conducted in the country. Presently standards are mostly adopted from the developed nations either to show pro-activism to the public or at international forums or to meet the international treaties. The Government actions have thus scaled down the state of environment in the country as the government has never been able to implement the legislation and statutory standards. The real need of the hour is for the government to frame such legislation and standards in collaboration with the industry, which is ultimately going to implement them. We need to make our own standards based on indigenous studies and considering our geographical, economic, environmental, and societal requirements in collaboration with the industry. LE Forest T A growing population, rising disposable income levels and the availability of a wide range of 2