Question : ENVIRONMENT (PROTECTION) ACT, 1996

(a) whether the Government has taken any action under Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 against any project promoters with regard to violation of provisions of environment regulation including Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearance norms in the country;

(b) if so, the details thereof during the last three years and the current year;

(c) whether the Government has noticed that the above act and CRZ clearance norms have not being complied properly due to several compulsions; and

(d) if so, the reaction of the Government thereto along with the corrective steps taken by the Government in this regard?

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTS (SHRIMATI JAYANTHI NATARAJAN)

(a) & (b) : During the past three years, action was taken against Six project proponents under Section 5 of Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 for violation of the provisions of Coastal Regulation Zone Notification, 1991. Order was issued in one these cases for removal of unauthorized structure in Mumbai.

(c) & (d) : For effective regulation of developmental activities in coastal area, a new notification viz. Coastal Regulation Zone Notification for the main land and Island Protection Zone Notification for Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands were notified on 06.01.2011. These notifications provides that the State Government or the Union territory Coastal Zone Management Authorities (CZMA) shall primarily be responsible for enforcing and monitoring of these notifications and the State Government and the Union territory shall constitute district level Committees under the Chairmanship of the District Magistrate concerned and having at least three representatives of local traditional coastal communities including from fisherfolk.

Further, these Notifications mandate the project proponent to submit half-yearly compliance reports in respect of the stipulated terms and conditions of the environmental clearance in hard and soft copies to the regulatory authority(s) concerned.All such compliance reports submitted by the project proponent shall be published in public domain and its copies shall be given to any person on application to the concerned CZMA. The reports shall also be displayed on the website of the concerned regulatory authority. To maintain transparency in the working of the CZMAs it shall be the responsibility of the CZMA to create a dedicated website and post all the relevant information including minutes of themeetings, clearance letters, details of violations etc.in it.

All the State / Union territory CZMA were asked to take action against the violations of Coastal Regulation Zone notification and the action taken reviewed by the National Coastal Zone Management Authority in the Ministry.