Notification on New Townships

Concerned by the seriousness of continuing pollution of rivers and other water bodies resulting in a perennial burden on Government and the fact that the Rules under Environment (Protection) Act as such do not cover town planning, Baalu took a bold initiative to bring new projects relating to construction of new townships, industrial townships, settlement colonies, hospitals, commercial, office and hotel complexes etc. for 1000 persons or above or discharging sewage of 50,000 litres per day and above or with an investment of Rs.50 crore and above and new industrial estates having an area of 50 hectares and above under the purview of Environment Impact Assessment (EIA). This step was aimed to ensure that all such new projects are supported by appropriate environment management plans so that they do not have adverse impact on environment and river cleaning plans being implemented at a huge public cost. A draft notification on this proposal for seeking suggestions and comments of public, states and other stakeholders was issued on 27th October 2003. As expected, the draft received a favourable response from all corners including UN organizations like UNEP. However, before this legislation could be converted into law, DMK withdrew from the NDA in January 2004. But, the proposal held strong merit and, therefore, the legislation was ultimately introduced during the regime of UPA that followed NDA after the elections to 14th Lok Sabha.