Environment
Support Group ®
S-3, Rajashree Apartments, 18/57, 1st Main
Road, S. R. K. Gardens,
Jayanagar, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore 560
041. INDIA
Telefax: 91-80-6341977/6531339
Email: esg@bgl.vsnl.net.in Website: http://www.altindia.net/esg/index.htm
Mr. V. Rajagopalan
Jt. Secretary (IA)
Ministry of Environment and Forests
Government of India
Paryavaran Bhavan, CGO Complex
Lodi Road
New Delhi 110001
18
June 2002
RE: Access to
Compliance Report of Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project promoted
by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise.
Dear Mr. Rajagopalan,
We write in relation to the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure
Corridor Project (BMICP). As you may be
aware, the BMICP was accorded a Consent for Establishment “from the water and
air pollution control point of view” by the Karnataka State Pollution Control
Board (KSPCB) on 01 August 2000 (vide Order No. KSPCB/CFE/DEO-2/AEO-2/2000-2001/208)
and the expressway component of this project was accorded conditional
environmental clearance by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), New
Delhi on 08 August 2001 (Order No. J-21012/39/2000-IA-III).
Per Clause (xi) of “General Conditions” of the clearance
accorded by MoEF, “A six-monthly monitoring report shall be submitted to the
Regional Office of this Ministry at Bangalore regarding the implementation of
the stipulated conditions.”
Per Section IV of the EIA Notification, we requested Dr.
Sathya, Addl. Director (Scientific) of the Southern Cell of the Ministry of
Environment and Forests in Bangalore, to share with us a copy of the compliance
report of NICE in the BMICP. Dr. Sathya
is of the view that she cannot share this document to any public person, and it
could only be accessed from the Impact Assessment Agency, that is your office
in Delhi.
Keeping this position in view, which we are informed is the
status of response with regard to any project all over the country, it could be
inferred that access to this document in particular, and such documents in any
given case, would be impossible, as most organisations or individuals would not
have the capacity to travel to Delhi only to inspect a document.
In the present instance, NICE has announced to the press
that the BMIC project would commence shortly.
We are of the view that many of the conditions have not been complied
with, and this may create serious problems for both the environment and human
settlements affected, and also reflect rather adversely on the capacity of
regulatory agencies to force project developers into complying with orders
issued. The express reason for us to
review the NICE compliance report on BMICP should be viewed in this context.
Consequently we request you to issue a direction to all
Regional Offices and Pollution Control Boards, that all compliance reports for
any project must be made available to the public, including even through the
district environment offices or local offices of the Pollution Control Boards.
In view of the Rio+10 conference scheduled later this year,
and keeping in view India’s obligations under Agenda 21, we hope you will take
effective action in this regard at the very earliest.
Thanking you,
Yours sincerely,
Leo F. Saldanha
Coordinator
Cc.:
EIA NOTIFICATION Section IV states:.”In order
to enable the Impact Assessment Agency to monitor effectively the
implementation of the recommendations and conditions subject to which the
environmental clearance has been given, the project authorities concerned shall
submit a half-yearly report to the Impact Assessment Agency. Subject to the
public interest, the Impact Assessment Agency, shall make compliance reports
publicly available.”