Environmental clearances made easy

Environment cannot be compromised in bringing in development(industrialisation).Things are going very wrong. Now National Investment Board(NIB) has the power to overrule ministries if there is a delay in making of large-scale projects. Ministry of Environment and Forests has the exclusive right to make clearances of all projects. Now NIB is overstepping and making this ministry power-less to prevent polluting projects.Prime Minister's office has given NIB power to over rule Environment Ministry for giving green clearances for mines. Tribal people live in the forests of India which are rich in minerals. With the making of these new regulations, the tribal communities will have no say when their lands would be snatched from them to create mines(to mine minerals) Their homes would be gone, their livelihoods would be lost.
This would weaken the nation, because now the tribal people would protest.That would delay projects.Investors want clearances quickly, and NIB wants to give it to them. And thereby giving away the rights of the people.There are no meaning for these words"inclusive growth", "sustainable growth" or "equitable growth".These words may only appear in speeches but in action they are having no meaning.Economic reforms come at a social cost and an environmental cost. Were these costs ever calculated? What land will we leave behind for the future generations. With water table contaminated by emissions from the mining projects we are jeopardising the health, safety and security of the people inhabiting there. If we finish off the resources now itself, then future generations will have none left. Mineral resources cannot be replenished and they are lost for ever.
Forest Conservation Act was enacted so that states asked centre for permission for clearance of forest land for mining activity.Government re-phrases and re-interprets "forest land" and our natural wealth is lost in defining "lands" Due to mining activity, fish stocks have declined making livelihoods of fishermen disappear.If this activity is development, we are creating poverty and not alleviating it, and this is opposite of development.From 1991 to 2004, minerals produced in India have increased by four fold, but there is reduction of jobs in mining. Mining industry is now automated, and miners have lost jobs.So there is more poverty in a mining town than ever before.
When locals are driven away from their lands, they may have to live deeper in the forests as a competition to the wildlife of India. So we cannot give away forest wealth, making people landless and forest creatures homeless.
Government also has given clearances improperly and had not consider the cost of health of the people.Favouring "bribe-giving industrialist" is very very common. Corporates are heard, but the common people are not heard. Their problems do not matter at all. This is unfair.We have to evolve a policy of human well-being of all and not just visualise immediate economic benefit. Even if economic reforms show growth, it wont be sustainable. Mining is not a sustainable activity.As policy makers, government has to do more research before "clearances" and consider the rights of the people of the land. People will be asking for their rights sooner or later.