Maharashtra and Karnataka have admitted that they have violated the Environment Protection Act (EPA), 1986, on more than one occasion. In their affidavit to the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC), they confessed they have gone ahead with many projects even before obtaining the environmental clearances. The EAC is a quasi-judicial body under the aegis of the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The two states also admitted that they are guilty of violations of the Environment Impact Assessment (EIS) notification many times. Who found out the violations? The South Asia Network for Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) alerted the ministry. SANDRP monitors river valley projects and their enviroment clearances. They came across several proposals from the two states wherein the water resources departments sought green nod from the MoEF even as work on the said projects was well under way. Are these violations still going on? After submitting the affidavit, the two states told the EAC they will not do it again. The next EAC meeting is set to consider the Krishna-Marathwada Lift Irrigation proposal from Maharashtra worth nearly Rs 5,000 crore. It plans to divert 23.66 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) of water from Ujani dam to in Beed and Osmanabad. Ironically, work on the scheme is well-advanced. The state has already spent nearly Rs 500 crore on it. What is Karnataka's violation? The next EAC meeting will also consider the Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Ltd's (KKNL) Shiggaon Lift Irrigation Project. It was once discussed in September 2013, after the Karnataka CM had already inaugurated it in November 2012! In case of Shiggaon, too, SANDRP had alerted the EAC, What did the EAC do? The EAC issued a notice to the KKNL to file an affidavit about the violation and an undertaking to stop work and not resume it unless clearances are granted. The KKNL filed an affidavit, stating "there will be no recurrence of violations", thus accepting preset violations. SANDRP raised this with the EAC on Dec 5. EAC had than asked the Godavari Marathwada Irrigation Development Corporation (GMIDC) to stop all work and demanded an affidavit that no work will start without clearances. How many such violations have taken place? In case of Maharashtra, the CAG report, 2014, gave a list of 249 projects that do not have EC and more than 89 that do not have FC, violating the Forest Conservation Act (1980), causing a loss of thousands of crores to the state. SANDRP has made submissions about many such projects undertaken by WRD, Maharashtra, without requisite clearances. So, what happens if the states break rules again? MOEF says "the state government will need to initiate credible action by invoking powers under Section 19 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, for taking necessary legal action under Section 15 of the Act for the period for which violation has taken place and evidence provided to MoEF of the credible action taken".