Ministry of Environment has brought amendment to “Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification – 2006”

The bulk drugs manufacturers under category “A” moved to category “B2”

• Ministry Of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has notified the amendment to
  the Environmental Impact Assessment Notification – 2006
• The amendment has completely revised the process of Scoping under the Prior Environmental
  Clearance process
• 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

Salient key points of the amendment

• The ministry has re-categorized all the bulk drugs manufacturers under category „A‟ to category
  „B2‟
• The projects that are falling under Category A require mandatory EIA
• Projects falling under Category B2 are exempted from requirement of collection of Base line data,
  EIA Studies and public consultation
• The re-categorization has been done to decentralize the proposals to state leve
• The states have been provided with guidelines to process the proposals before authorizing them
• This step is with a view to help in increasing the availability of the important medicines or drugs
  in the country within short span of time
• This amendment is applicable to all proposals received up to 30th September 2020
• Thestates have also been issued advisories to expeditiously process such proposals
• 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
• Within a period of about two weeks, more than 100 proposals have been received under this
  category, which are at different levels of decision making by the concerned regulatory authorities inthe states

What is “Environment Impact Assessment”?

• It is the assessment of the environmental consequences (positive negative) of a plan, policy,
  program, or actual projects prior to the decision to move forward with the proposed action
• In this context, the term “environmental impact assessment” (EIA) is usually used when applied
  to actual projects by individuals or companies and the term “strategic environmental assessment”
  (SEA) applies to policies, plans and programs most often proposed by organs of state
• It is a tool of environmental management forming a part of project approval and decision-making
• Environmental assessments may be governed by rules of administrative procedure regarding
  public participation and documentation of decision making, and may be subject to judicial review
• The purpose of the assessment is to ensure that decision makers consider the environmental
  impacts when deciding whether or not to proceed with a project

Categories differences in EIA

• The Category A projects require mandatory environmental clearance and does not undergo
  screening
• On the other hand, category B projects undergoes screening process
• Under Category B, there are two types. They are Category B1 and Category B2
  Category B1 are those projects that require EIA for appraisal and also has to undergo public
  consultation and category B2 are those that do not require EIA

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