Welcome End to DoE Slumber
The Department of Environment's (DoE) plea to all city services organisations to not provide any new connection to buildings that do not have environmental clearance certificate suggests that the department has finally came out of its deep slumber. We hope that the DoE call will initiate an orchestrated move towards enforcement of Environment Conservation Act 1995 and Environment Conservation Rules 1997.
We believe that the show-cause notice served to Basundhara, a leading real estate developer, will send a strong warning for other housing firms that have so far made light, if not mockery, of the environment-related law of the land. The department's long-drawn indifference towards formulation and enforcement of environment-related laws is indeed solely responsible for the fact that none of the city buildings has ever obtained clearance certificate in this regard. We expect them to immediately figure out ways to mitigate the negative impact the extant, approved and under-construction buildings may have on environment.
The DoE initiative calls for sustained monitoring which, according to one top official, seems highly unlikely for the department with its limited resources. As a compromise they have decided to monitor only the firms involved in construction of multi-storied buildings. It will certainly leave a big hole in the whole system. It is about time the government realised that environment protection should top its agenda and more efforts should be directed towards this end. We may have wasted plenty of time in slumber. We have no time for long-term plans, we need immediate action.
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