MyVoice: Views of our readers 27th July 2020

Draft EIA will impact eco-balance adversely

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change released the draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA), 2020 in March. It seeks to replace EIA,2006. The EIA is an important process for evaluating likely environmental impact on the proposed project by taking into consideration the views of people for granting final approval. The draft provides for the reduction in the time for a response from any public hearing from the previous 30 days to 20 days.

Since the number of days has been reduced, the time taken for comments/suggestions is affected which defeats the purpose for EIA and affecting the transparency in the whole project. The new draft allows for post-facto approval of the projects. It simply means clearances can be awarded to projects even if they have started construction or have been in the running phase without securing prior approval.

The draft also exempts certain projects from public consultation ones the project is labelled as 'strategic' and no information of such a project is put in the public domain. The 2006 notification required that the project proponent provide compliance report every 6 months. However, the new draft wants to do away with this and bring in the annual compliance report. This only means that this is not much of use because the environment has already been exploited for a year and it takes time to reclaim it back.

The EIA is not only set to impact the environment adversely but also does not cater to the apprehensions of the tribals who got displaced due to various projects on their homes. The new draft is open for the public scrutiny till August 11. The public should make itself aware of the prevailing situations and appeal to the government to withdraw or amend the draft.

Girish Daasari, Hyderabad

Gehlot, Pilot should solve issue amicably

The political fight between Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his deputy Sachin Pilot took in an ugly turn. Actually, the Indian National Congress High Command is responsible for the Rajasthan crisis. The Congress expelled Sachin Pilot in a hurry and without deliberation. Even Sachin Pilot's childish decision to leave the party without any future road map is deplorable. With this, the BJP is keenly looking for any opportunity to form the government or impose President's rule in the State. It will be better for Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot to sit together and mutually solve the problems in the interest of the people and run the government smoothly.

Syed Nissar, Hyderabad

Nepotism, a social shame

Recently many Bollywood artistes including Kangana Ranaut, Sushmita Sen and Ayushmann Khurrana are opening up about their experiences with regards to nepotism but, nepotism is not just a Bollywood problem. Indian politics has seen most of the nepotism in its history. Corruption goes hand in hand with nepotism in the country. This is because Indian politics favours nepotism like no other field.

Nepotism in Indian politics is one of the most eminent form of practices of hierarchical inheritance. It is one of the main reasons for corruption in politics. Although India is a democratic country, where all the citizens have the right to equal opportunities, prevalence of nepotism deprive talented youth of opportunities. It is a serious social problem. Various fields such as politics and Bollywood industries favour hierarchy more than talent, making the world an even more difficult place. It is responsible for ruining careers of various talented actors. Overcoming political nepotism will help budding talents full of determination to take India to new heights. Living in the 21st century and still practising nepotism is a social shame. Indian Constitution provides us a fair chance to fight against, and get rid of this evil practice.

Mansi Dubey, Nagpur, Maharashtra