Open letter to Ministry of Environment

National joint statement expressing concern over ineffective addressal of environmental concerns by Ministry of Environment and Forests (Government of India)
03 September, 2004

A network environmental and social justice organisations, and independent consultants and researchers from across India, have joined together in expressing their deepest concern over the failure of the Ministry of Environment and Forests in fulfilling its obligations of protecting the environment and human rights of affected communities.

This action has been taken in the form of a joint letter sent to the Ministry, wherein the following adverse impacts have been highlighted:

1. Severe reduction in opportunities available to citizens to input into MoEF (and GOI) decisions, and in the seriousness with which MoEF considers such inputs;
2. Decline in the ability and willingness of MoEF to ensure that development processes and projects (e.g. in hydro-power and infrastructure) are oriented towards integrating environmental and social concerns.
3. Declining emphasis on improving regulation and regulatory mechanisms, and instead pushing for voluntaryand market basedinstruments.
Per Constitutional Objectives, protection of environment is not merely the task of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, but they have played a significantly weak role resulting in the remaining Ministries and other Governmental agencies providing least importance to environmental and human rights concerns.  Consequently, it has resulted in little or no regard from the industrial and corporate sectors to uphold the values and principles latent in our environmental laws and regulations, and further, their practices have resulted in a further deterioration of the environmental conditions in this vast and diverse country.

A copy of the full statement with list of signatories is enclosed.

Following this release, the network will actively exert pressure on the new Government at the Centre to re-focus its objectives, particularly the Common Minimum Programme, so that integrating environmental and social justice concerns in decision making gets the primacy it rightfully deserves.

Leo F. Saldanha
Environment Support Group Open letter to the Ministry of Environment and Forests