Environment ministry bars expert appraisal panels from asking for additional studies midway through appraisal; eases land acquisition norms The Union environment ministry on Thursday barred the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) from commissioning any additional impact assessment studies, making life easier for developers. Under the revised norms, in order to avoid delay in clearances, the EAC - a group of experts which recommends projects for environment clearance - cannot ask a project developer for additional environmental studies while already appraising a proposal. Environmental studies are a pre-requisite for every project proponent and is supposed to take into account all environment concerns related to the project, the basis for granting a green nod. "It has been brought to the notice of this ministry that sometimes the EACs during the appraisal process revisit the issue of the site of the project and/or seek additional studies on various issues which do not form part of the Terms of References (TORs). This, besides delaying the whole process, goes against the spirit of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification 2006," the October 7 ministry order says. According to EIA Notification 2006, a project has to go through several stages before environment clearance is granted. The first stage involves screening, which determines if a project requires further environmental studies for preparation of an EIA, after the developer sends the relevant information for setting up a factory or whatever. Then, the EAC recommends TOR for preparation of EIA, also known as scoping. Once this is done, public consultation with locally affected persons takes place and then the project is appraised by the committee. During the appraisal, the final EIA report and outcome of public consultation becomes the basis for a recommendation on the project. There have been several instances where the EAC has received apprehensions related to the natural resources surrounding the project and during appraisal, has sent back the proposal, seeking more details on how the project proponent plans to deal with it. For instance, the EAC had sought additional information for Reliance Power's Sasan ultra mega project expansion before granting clearance for the Chhatrasal block. It had asked Reliance for more information on issues such as land use pattern. The ministry has now ordered the EAC to look into all these concerns at the time of the initial stages only (while granting TOR) and "ensure that no fresh issues are raised (during appraisal) unless it turns out that the information provided by the project proponent at the time of scoping was wrong and misleading". It has also stated that in rare cases, where seeking additional information beyond TORs becomes "inevitable", the EAC should completely justify this move, besides getting additional studies conducted in a timebound manner. LAND RULES BREATHER in a separate move, the government also allowed project proponents to furnish proofs of initiation of land acquisition instead of going for full acquisition at the project site. At present, an industrialist has to necessarily submit documents reflecting full land acquisition before the project is considered for environment clearance (EC). Industries will now have to only file supportive documents showing initiation of the acquisition, so that this process can go in parallel with the EC procedures. "While full acquisition of land may not be a pre-requisite for the consideration of the case for EC, there should be some credible document to show the status of land acquisition with regard to the project site when the case is brought before the concerned EAC for appraisal," stated a ministry office memorandum dated October 7. According to the order, a project developer needs to file a copy of the preliminary notification on land acquisition issued by the state government concerned if land is taken through government intervention. If land is obtained through a private entity, then a "credible document showing the intent of the land owners to sell the land" would be the only requirement