New Delhi, Nov 26th : .The Additional Solicitor General (ASG), informed Friday the Delhi High Court that the Union Government had made available the draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA), in 22 vernacular language translations. A bench consisting of Chief Justice DN Patel, Justice Jyoti Singh and Justice Jyoti Singh took note of the submission by ASG Chetan Sharma.They directed the Centre to dispose of the matter within 60 days of the online publication of the translated EIA draft.
This was in order to allow stakeholders to file objections.Notably, the draft EIA 2020 notification was heavily criticised by experts and activists alike.
They criticized it as an attempt to weaken environmental governance.
After several hearings, the Centre agreed in principle on August 27th to translate the draft into all 22 languages.
The Ministry strongly opposed the translation of this draft and stated to the High Court that it would cause administrative chaos and create administrative difficulties in the implementation.
Vikrant Tongad, an environment conservationist and founder of Social Action for Forests and Environments (SAFE), had sought modification to the court’s earlier order to extend public comments on the draft EIA notice 2020 by 60 days starting from the date of uploading all translated versions of the notification in all languages listed in Schedule VIII.
In June, he also challenged the notification and requested an extension of time for comments due to the lockdown caused by the pandemic.
The court had earlier sought the Centre’s reply in this regard, as many people won’t be able to see a draft of public concern that is in Hindi and English.
The Ministry published the initial draft EIA 2020 notification, dated March 23, 2020 in the official gazette on April 11, 2020.
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