Cement, Energy and Environment

TRIBAL AFFAIRS, ENVIRONMENT MINISTRIES SEEK MORE TIME ON DIVERSION OF FOREST LAND The move to ease diversion of forest land for industrial use by the Prime Minister's Office faces further delay as the ministries of tribal affairs and environment want more time for consultations. A panel headed by principal secretary to the Prime Min ister, Pulok Chatterjee, had decided to dilute the requirement of talking consent from the affected tribal population before diverting forest land. The committee , which submitted its report on December 12, included top officials from tribal affairs and environment ministries. The recommendations for all practical purposes allow the forest clearance process to bypass the gram sabhas, or village assemblies, which are the basic units for the implementation of the Forest Right Act. The PMO-driven report required the environment ministry to change its August 2009 order-removing the clause that makes it mandatory for the state government to provide written consent from the project-affected gram sabhas. The consent would include that all claims under the Forest Right Act had been settled and that they approved of the diversion of forest land. The changes were to be finalized and notified by the ministries by December 31 . The dilution of the Forest Rights Act is a politically fraught issue with the Congress leadership and the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council firmly coming down in favour of protecting the rights of the tribal population. However, sections of the government are pushing for a more liberal regime to support industrial growth. Sources indicated that given the high political voltage of the move, no ministry is willing to be responsible for the dilution of the Forest Rights Act. A senior environment ministry official said, "the issue is still being discussed. The minister has written to the tribal affairs minister". Sources indicated that there was a level of unease with the recommendations of the committee. Given that the Forest Rights Act is administered by the tribal affairs ministry, it will have the final say on whether it would like a strict adherence of the Forest Rights Act while considering projects for forest clearance, a senior government official said. Tribal affairs minister KC Deo said: "The recommendations of the PMO-Ied committee do take on board the concern of this ministry. However, consultations with the environment ministry are still on . The process is far from over." Deo has already written two strongly worded letters to environment minister Jayanthi Natrajan stressing the need to ensure that no clearance is given to projects in areas where the Forests Rights Act has not been implemented. Deo told ET that any guidelines on forest areas have to maintain the sanctity of the Schedule V areas (tribal– inhabited forest areas). "The Constitution guarantees protection to the Scheduled V areas. This protection guaranteed in the Constitution has never been replaced and must be ensured. This protection predates the Forest Rights Act and the PESA Act," Deo said. I Courtesy: FIM/ News Bulletin, 1 February 2013 Waste to Wealth & Waste Recycling WEALTH FROMWASTE Ten year ago, a World Bank report said 2.9 billion urban residents worldwide used to generate some 0.68 billion tones of mun icipa l solid waste per year, or about 0.64 kg per person per day. Today, there are three billion urban residents in the world, producing 1.2 kg. of solid waste per person per day, or some 1.3 billion tones per year. The prediction is that, by 2025, there will be 4.3 billion urban residents worldwide, each generating an average of 1.42 kg. every day, totaling 2.2 billion tones every year. But here's the twist in the tale. If the growing volumes of waste, increasingly dominated by often-dangerous recyclables, pose a direct challenge to our age-old dump-and-forget attitude to waste management, they've also opened up new business opportunities. Handling waste is becoming so big and complicated a task that many countries are finding it immensely more sensible, and even cheaper in the long run, to call in private companies to help out; and private companies, our latter-day rag-pickers, seem to have discovered in it a profitable new means of corporate livelihood. Waste management has come a long way from open dumping to new alternatives like energy production and resource recovery using modern technologies, vastly widening the scope for the private sector to fit in. Analysts say the globa l waste management business is already worth $ 390 billion a year and will keep on growi ng by 10 to 20 per cent annually in the foreseeable future. Asia , economically the most dynamic growth area in the world today, naturally will have a major share of it. 38