SEIAA frowns on long wait for appraisal The State-level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) has taken strong exception to the delay in the appraisal of priority projects for grant of Environmental Clearance, leading to a spat with the State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC). The last meeting of the authority came down heavily on the SEAC for the delay in appraising government projects like the Integrated Petrochemical Complex at the Kochi refinery of BPCL and the doubling of railway tracks in the Haripad-Ambalappuzha sector that had applied for extraction of ordinary earth. Earlier, considering the application submitted by BPCL on out-of-turn priority, the SEIAA, chaired by K.P. Joy, had invoked the provisions of an office memorandum issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to grant EC for the mega project. In December 2015, BPCL had written to the government seeking steps to clear its application to bring earth for site levelling and construction of bund for the compound wall of the petrochemical complex. It pointed out that any delay beyond the dry spell till May 2016 would push the project beyond its deadline. Decision to bypass Justifying the decision to bypass the SEAC, the minutes of the SEIAA meeting said a national-level mega petrochemical project could not have been delayed further. “The reasons adduced by SEAC for deferring the applications were not serious or relevant enough. The SEAC has no grounds to delay government projects involving hundreds of crores of rupees like the petrochemical complex.” Both the SEIAA and SEAC have been constituted by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests as environment regulatory bodies at the State-level. The SEAC assists the authority in appraising category B projects like mining and quarrying, industrial projects, major housing and construction and removal of earth before they are granted EC. In November last year, Railway authorities had approached the government seeking EC for quarrying of 1,57,000 cubic metres of earth for doubling of tracks in the Haripad-Ambalappuzha sector. The application had sought speedy clearance to complete the work in the financial year and avoid lapse of funds. With the SEAC refusing take up the application out of turn, the SEIAA decided to issue EC on the basis of a certificate from the Railways on the requirement of earth for the work. The SEAC was also asked to speed up the appraisal of pending railway projects.