On 27 April, the environment ministry issued an Office Memorandum (OM) clarifying how projects operating within existing industrial estates, parks and regions could be exempted from the requirement of carrying out public consultations.
Any circular mentioning the word ‘exemption’ becomes suspect. More so at a time when environment regulation is being constantly tweaked and changed to create space for ‘ease of doing business’.
Alarm bells go off even more when a government missive mentions public consultations. After all, this process under the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification has opened up a critical space for affected communities. . .
