Fly ash management in India: a critique of existing and proposed frameworks
On 22.04.2021, India’s Environment Ministry published a Draft Fly Ash Notification, which was open for public comments for 60 days and sought to replace the earlier notifications with respect to fly ash management since 1999. As a response to the draft, made a submission to the Ministry on the need to reassess the approach, design and content of the fly ash related regulations. This submission highlighted five main issues that lead to enforcement challenges in regulating fly ash. The Environmental Justice Program at Centre for Policy Research has been studying the issue of fly ash mismanagement and its failures in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Odisha. Based on the research on the regulatory gaps in fly ash management and the social and ecological impacts from it, have put together a report which elaborates on the five main issues identified in the submission made to the Ministry. This report: Discusses the lacunae in the implementation of the existing fly ash management regulations using primary and secondary data and and compares the proposed draft against the backdrop of current status of fly ash management efforts.
