Draft EIA disgraceful and dangerous, says Rahul Gandhi

The union environment ministry has received well over 100,000 comments and suggestions from people on the draft environment impact assessment (EIA) notification of 2020 that some green activists say could severely undermine environmental regulation in India.

“The number of comments is way over a lakh. We are still compiling the submissions. We have been overwhelmed with the number of comments,” said a senior environment ministry official who declined to be identified. The feedback was based on the count as of Friday. The deadline for submission of feedback is Tuesday.

Environmental activists have been critical of the draft EIA notification, which was published by the environment ministry in March, because of a number of contentious clauses that they say could weaken environmental regulation.