UPA government being blamed for delay in environment regulatory authority
The NDA government, in the Supreme Court, blamed the Congress-led UPA regime for the delay in setting up of an independent environmental regulatory authority which would help to monitor compliance of the green laws while asking for three more months to take a final call.
Even as the Supreme Court had on August 4 rejected its plea to grant six months, the ministry of environment, forests and climate change pled for time till December 15 to finalise the framework of the proposed authority. The SC Green Bench had called for a categorical response by September 15 as to whether the government was willing to comply with its 2011 directive for putting in place a national regulator, with its offices across the country, for appraising projects, enforcing environmental norms for approvals and to further impose penalties on polluters.
The regulator, if set up, will substantially alter environmental governance in India. It would take most of the operational work away from the environment ministry, which would then be left with the primary job of framing policy guidelines.
Source: The Financial Express
