{"id":194228,"date":"2022-07-05T17:18:04","date_gmt":"2022-07-05T11:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=194228"},"modified":"2022-07-05T17:18:04","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T11:48:04","slug":"red-signals-for-green-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/red-signals-for-green-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Red signals for green laws"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on article \u201cRed signals for green laws\u201d published in the Business Standard on 4th<\/sup> July 2022.<\/p>\n

Syllabus<\/strong>: GS3 – Ecology and Environment<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>: Environmental Protection Laws<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: Recently, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has proposed to amend the environmental protection law; and air and water pollution laws.<\/p>\n

About the proposals<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The government wants to decriminalize the provisions<\/strong> to remove fear of imprisonment for \u201csimple\u201d violations, proposal to raise the penalty from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, instead of the imprisonment for the first default (originally up to five years).<\/p>\n

For a repeat offence the penalty would become more interpretational. It will be treated as equivalent to the damage caused.<\/p>\n

If the defaulter fails to pay both the original and additional penalty, then imprisonment would follow.<\/p>\n

The aggrieved parties can appeal to the National Green Tribunal (NGT)\u00a0against the adjudicating officer\u2019s order.<\/p>\n

The government would create an environment protection fund <\/strong>where the penalty imposed by adjudicating officers under the amended rules will be deposited.<\/p>\n

The fund will be used for the benefit of affected parties.<\/p>\n

What are the issues?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The proposal’s aim is to dilute the penal provisions<\/strong>. They would lead to loosening of the environment protection laws and establish a business-friendly regime.<\/p>\n

India is facing ecological challenges. For example, the country is among the world\u2019s top climate-induced disaster-hit countries<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

There are arguments to keep environmental protection laws as strict as possible.<\/p>\n

Traditionally, India has been adherent to the principle of climate justice<\/strong> and keeping environment protection non-negotiable. <\/strong><\/p>\n

What are the other government initiatives that seem to be great cause of concern?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

In 2014, the government allowed factories to be set up in eight critically polluted belts.<\/p>\n

The mid-sized polluting industries were allowed to operate within 5 km of eco-sensitive areas instead of 10 km.<\/p>\n

The effluent norms for thermal power plants were eased. Further, ecologically sensitive areas (ESA) were denotified and coastal regulation zones (CRZ) were loosened.<\/p>\n

The amendments to the Forest Act were proposed which aims to enable safaris, zoos, mining and other non-forest use on forest land.<\/p>\n

The government has strengthened its role in environmental decision-making bodies<\/strong>. For example, it has reduced the number of independent members on the National Board for Wildlife from 15 to three.<\/p>\n

The government also tried to take a bigger role in the appointment of the chairman of the NGT. However, the decision was stayed by the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Way Forward<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The balance between growth and environment sustainability should be maintained at all times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on article \u201cRed signals for green laws\u201d published in the Business Standard on 4th July 2022. Syllabus: GS3 – Ecology and Environment Relevance: Environmental Protection Laws News: Recently, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has proposed to amend the environmental protection law; and air and water pollution… Continue reading Red signals for green laws<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[10503,216],"class_list":["post-194228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-business-standard","tag-gs-paper-3","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":1700788577,"cached_date":1704619540},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194228\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}