Ministry of Environment,Forest and Climate Change has amended the Environment Impact Assessment notification 2006 to address unprecedented situation arising from global outbreak of Novel Corona Virus (COVID-19), and to ramp up availability or production of various drugs. The notification was amended on March 27, 2020.
As per the amended, all projects or activities in respect of bulk drugs and intermediates, manufactured for addressing various ailments, have been re-categorized from the existing Category ‘A’ to ‘B2’ category.
Projects falling under Category B2 are exempted from requirement of collection of Base line data, EIA Studies and public consultation.
What is Base Line Data: It Describes relevant physical, biological and socioeconomic conditions, including all changes anticipated before the project commences, within an area around the project site. Under current regulations in India this is a radius of 10 or 25km of the site, depending on whether the site is in the vicinity of sensitive areas such as National Parks, sanctuaries, or archaeological monuments. Additionally takes into account current and proposed development activities within the project area but not directly connected to the project.
Objective: The re-categorization of such proposals has been done to facilitate decentralization of appraisal to State Level so as to fast track the process. This step of the Govt is with a view to help in increasing the availability of the important medicines/ drugs in the country within short span of time. This amendment is applicable to all proposals received up to 30th September 2020. The states have also been issued advisories to expeditiously process such proposals.
Further, to ensure expeditious disposal of the proposals within given time-line, Ministry has also advised states to use information technology e.g. video conference, considering the fact that in view of the prevailing situation on ground, appraisal of proposals may not be possible through physical meetings.
