#dnaedit: Up next: A clearance sale

It’s almost always a given that when development for the greater good of the greater number is unleashed on a nation, the first casualty is environment. Against the backdrop of this inconvenient truth, when a political party storms to power having canvassed on the plank of development, it is a cause for anxiety. This, in turn, needs to be seen in the light of the hapless condition that the Congress-led government left the country in. The economy is in a shambles, and the ecology has been rendered comatose. The maximum damage on the environment was wreaked by the last incumbent in the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) — M Veerappa Moily. The MoEF had always been a surrogate to the ministries of finance, commerce, coal, water resources, and what have you. It served less as a custodian of the environment, and more of a clearing house for those who eventually ravage it. 

It will take a superhuman effort on the part of Prakash Javadekar, the new MoEF in-charge, to even arrest the decline, leave alone rejuvenate the environment. Less than two weeks is too little for anyone to judged, and the first days of a minister are those of sending out signals. 

His very first act was to convert the MoEF into the ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEFCC). This does not indicate a major policy shift by any measure as yet, but it unquestionably makes the ground fertile enough to sow the seeds of a climate change mindset later. Agreed that this is only on paper so far, and unless most other allied ministries are reined in, this would only be a change in nomenclature. But for anything to start, it needs to be put on paper first. On that count, this is a right signal indeed, no matter which coloured glass you choose to look at it from. 

Javadekar’s next move was to take the procedure for environmental clearances online. This effort is being hailed as one that will ensure transparency. But it doesn’t — it only makes the process of procuring clearances less cumbersome. That’s all. All environmental and forest clearances granted by the MoEF since 1980 are already online, though this section on the ministry site had disappeared for months when Jayanthi Natarajan and Moily were at the helm of affairs. It is not transparency, which already exists to a certain extent, that is the issue at hand — it is the overriding of laws and overruling of objections while granting clearances that is problematic. Here, the 60-day window promised by Javadekar is a scare. This promise sends out the signal that, come what may, his ministry will primarily serve as a clearing house. He has already assured that faster clearances will be accorded to infrastructure projects. What he did not clarify was whether he will only ensure that no official unnecessarily sits on files, or whether laws protecting the environment will be flouted — officially. His promise to give clearances to 200 projects needs to be seen in this context. His officials are already on their way to change laws to suit their clients — the six parameters that identify pristine forests as ‘inviolate’ is being pruned down from six to four.

The new minister has not started on the wrong or right foot, he’s started with a dubious note.