Govt to fix deadlines for green approval
An official says that the forest officers at the state level would be required to scrutinize applications within 10 days and if no questions are raised, the proposal is to be accepted under a new paper less approval mechanism that consists of state as well as central-level forest clearances. It is an eight stage process.
The ministry of environment and forest has agreed to apply the new mechanism and a portal is being readied with test runs slated to begin as early as next month. This will follow the same practice for the 5 step environment clearances and mining sanction to be taken up next.
A maximum number of projects have been held up for the past several years due to the red-tape related to environment and forest clearances. In some cases, forest clearances have been pending for years and holding up investment of thousands of crores. Nearly 40 percent of projects were held up due to the requirement of green clearances.
A source says that e-approvals driven by the cabinet secretariat will provide transparency and also help fix responsibility on officials holding up approvals.
An official further says that the idea is to get online tracking of documents, approvals and online communication at each stage to avoid physical movement of files.
For forest clearance projects will be categorized in to 4 groups in which those having forest land up to less than five hectares getting the fastest approvals while those with over 100 hectares will take longer to get a green light.
Source: The Times of India
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