Points to ponder
W hen you cry, in fact cry hoarse, and yet not be heard, what do you do? Experts contend that going to courts should be the last straw. "Firstly, there is a kind of misplaced loyalty towards the formal justice delivery mechanism as the be-all-and-end-all,' says Ramesh. Secondly, there is over-reliance on them. As a result, the higher judiciary is choked with cases, some of which are frivolous.
An alternative is to strengthen the public hearing of the projects at the formulation stage. This would also help the investor, who would be saved from the public project delays and cost overruns after the project has started. But this can happen only if the public hearing scrutiny of the project is effective and transparent. However, in its present state, the public hearing notification is a toothless device, says Rao (see box: Loopholes aplenty ). For them to be successful, comprehensive guidelines in consultation with all those who are involved in the process are needed. This is particularly important because in India, the pressure on the environment is very high and a development project will impact on the local environment and affect livelihoods. Protest is the only weapon people have to stall projects.
Unless there is an environmental governance system that allows people the ability to intervene in project siting, design and, most importantly, monitoring. But with the unholy alliance beween industry and officialdom persisting in this non-transparent system, public protest remains the only weapon in their hands.
The most important is recognising the right/ access to information, which ensures public approval and also imposes a sense of environmental accountability on the companies concerned. Secondly, there is a need to make eia more than just a "formality' and also weed out possible chances of corruption in the preparation of the report.
Right/ access to information
"Right to know' is critical in environmental matters. It is necessary for people's participation in decision-making and public approval, firstly because it is important they are made aware of the effects of the project on their social and economic well being and, secondly, to promote transparency in the decision-making process.
The right to information is a fundamental right, which is set in Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. Besides, in 1988, the Supreme Court in the Reliance Petrochemicals vs Indian Express SCC 592 held that the right to know is a basic right, which people at large have in order to be able to take part in participatory development in industrial life and democracy. The eia notification on public hearing is also a step forward towards this direction.
There is, however, a lack of awareness of these rights to begin with. "In any case, whose duty is to make people aware of the basic rights