QCI accreditation to be must for firms doing green survey

Organisations preparing Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) reports prior to approval of new industrial projects by ministry of environment & forest henceforth need to get accreditation from the Quality Council of India (QCI).

QCI has been entrusted by the ministry to carry the accreditation process and monitor those accredited organisations. The environment ministry would accept EIAs only prepared by a consultant accredited with QCI after June 30.

The move has been necessitated because of mushrooming agencies, and even individuals, preparing EIA reports. This had often led to delay in project clearances in the past, environment ministry sources told FE.

EIA is mandatory prior to the approval of industrial projects from the environment ministry. The ministry has stipulated that EIA helps evaluate the environmental impacts of proposed project. ?Those who do not have requisite qualification for conducting EIA would not be granted accreditation,? Giridhar J Gyani, secretary general of QCI, told FE.

QCI has set up a specialised committee under the chairmanship of Prodipto Ghosh, former secretary, ministry of environment & forest, for accrediting firms.

?We have got around 70 applications and around eight are in the advanced stage of getting accreditation,? Gyani said.

However, Chandra Bhushan, associate director of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and also member of the accreditation committee, said, ?It would be a long-drawn process and would take more than a year for the process to be smooth.?

EIA certification has been a contentious issue as most of the infrastructure projects need to get a mandatory certification from the environment ministry prior to its launch. The NGOs and activists have been stating that the ministry does not have the expertise to judge the environmental impact of each and every project. Many project developers have also raised their voices since small projects like IT or housing get delayed due to late award of EIA certification.

Even environment minister Jairam Ramesh has repeatedly said that EIA process is far from effective, since till date there is not a single project that has not been granted EIA clearance.