Environmental Policy and the Five- Year Plans

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND THE FIVE- YEAR PLANS

In First Five- Year Plan (1951-56) high priority was given to public health, agriculture, industrialization, water supply, sanitation, housing etc., but environmental development was not allotted requisite place till the end of Third plan. It was in Fourth Five- Year Plan (1969-1974) in the chapter on ‘Long Term Perspective’ that the process of planning contained the issue of environment as an important aspect. The importance of environmental planning recognized in the Fourth Plan was given practical shape by initiating a number of programmes during the Fifth Five- Year Plan (1974-79) to improve the quality of life and integration of environmental issues to be taken care of while examining economic and technical feasibility of any project. Afterwards, one of the main objectives of the Sixth Five-Year Plan (1980-1985) was to bring about harmony between short and long term goals of development by promoting the protection and improvement of ecological and environmental assets, careful use, management and husbanding of renewable resources like soil, water, air, flora and fauna, and ensured to bring in requisite sustainability in economic development.

The Seventh Five- Year Plan going ahead maintained the strategy of Sixth Plan and adopted the basic approach of “Sustainable development in harmony with environment”. It was emphasized that it may be any development programme, it should inevitably and invariably must take environmental consideration fully into account. For conservation of resources, involvement of the total population of the country was to be vouchsafed. Thus it made a paradigm shift in environment management process, which encompassed environmental planning, protection, monitoring, evaluation, assessment, research, education, conservation and sustainable use of resources.

The Eighth Five-Year Plan (1992-97) put in a special chapter on ‘Environment and Forest’ and effective measures were evolved to protect and correct the environment by protecting natural resources, regenerating and restoring degraded eco-systems, decentralising control over resources, formulating a new national policy for environment and an appropriate utilisation and legal framework and enhancing the field of accountability. The most important landmark of the plan was to make the regulatory mechanism and effective tool and instrument of environmental protection.

Even after incorporation of Environment issues in Five Year Plans, the industrialisation, rapid urbanisation, modernisation, deforestation, over exploitation of water and increase in vehicular traffic played havoc with environment and it became essential to take stock of worsening conditions and develop a blue-print for preservation, abatement and control of environmental pollution.

With a view to protecting and improving the environment, different legislations have been made and different regulations, rules have been issued. The Government of India, through its Ministry of Environment and Forests is administering has enacted nation-wide comprehensive laws. One of the major environmental enactments came, just two years after the Stockholm Conference, in 1974. The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act was passed for the purpose of prevention and control of water pollution and for maintaining and restoring the wholesomeness of water. The Water Act represented India's first attempt to deal with an environmental issue from a legal perspective.
From this period onwards, the Central Government has been considered as highly environmentally active. In 1976, the Constitution of India was amended to insert a separate fundamental duties chapter. The 1980s witnessed the creation of many eco-specific organizations. In the year 1980, the Forest (Conservation) Act was passed for the conservation of forests and to check on further deforestation. The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act of 1981 was enacted by invoking the Central Government's power under Article-253. The Air Act contained several distinguishing features. The preamble of the Air Act explicitly reveals that the Act represents an implementation of the decisions made at the Stockholm Conference. Also, a notification relating to Noise Pollution (Regulation & Control) Rules was made in the year 2000 with the objective of maintaining Ambient Air Quality Standards in respect of noise.

In the wake of the Bhopal gas tragedy, the Government of India enacted the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. The laws that existed prior to the enactment of EPA essentially focused on specific pollution (such as air and water). The need for a single authority which could assume the lead role for environmental protection was answered through the enactment of EPA. It is in the form of an umbrella legislation designed to provide a framework for Central Government to coordinate the activities of various central and state authorities established under previous laws. It is also in the form of an enabling law, which delegates wide powers to the executive to enable bureaucrats to frame necessary rules and regulations.

Apart from this, several notifications and rules have also been made, some of which include the Hazardous Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules in 1989, the Biomedical Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules in 1998, Recycled Plastics (Manufacture and Usage) Rules 1999, Environment(Silting for Industrial Projects) Rules 1999 and the Municipal Solid Wastes(Management and Handling) Rules in 2000.In addition to these eco-specific legislations, realizing that there is no comprehensive legislation dealing with biodiversity in India, and to fulfil its international obligation under the Convention on Bio-Diversity, the Government of India has enacted the Biological Diversity Act, 2002.

POLLUTION CONTROL LEGISLATIONS

As mentioned above, India incorporated environmental protection measures in the Constitution to implement decisions taken at International Conventions and Conferences. The Government of India further enacted a comprehensive environmental legislation to mitigate externalities. On the basis of these, the Indian Parliament enacted the Environment Protection Act, 1986. This is an umbrella legislation that consolidated the provisions of the Water Act of 1974 and the Air Act of 1981. Within the framework of the legislations, India established Pollution Control Boards (PCBs) in order to prevent, control and abate environmental pollution.

An outline of the environmental legislations in India is given below:

1. The Water Act of 1974 (Amendment, 1988)
This is the first law passed in India whose objective was to ensure that the domestic and industrial pollutants are not discharged into rivers, and lakes without adequate treatment. The reason is that such a discharge renders the water unsuitable as a source of drinking water, for the purposes of irrigation and to support marine life.
In order to achieve its objective Pollution Control Boards at Central and State levels were created to establish and enforce standards for factories discharging pollutants into bodies of water. The State Boards are empowered to issue Consent for Establishment (CFE) whenever a firm wanted to establish a new factory and also issue Consent for Operation (CFO) for existing factories. They were also given the authority to close factories or, in the case of disconnecting power and water supply, issue directions to the concerned Departments for enforcement of Boards standards.

2. The Air Act of 1981 (Amendment, 1987)
The objective of the Air Act of 1981 was to control and reduce air pollution. The working of this Act and the enforcement mechanisms are similar to that of Water Act. What was novel is that the Act also called for the abatement of noise pollution.

3. Environmental Protection Act, 1986 (The EP Act)
The objective of the EP Act is to protect and improve the environment in the country. It is an umbrella legislation that consolidated the provisions of the Air and the Water Act It was environmental disasters that prodded the Indian Government into passing comprehensive environmental legislation, including rules relating to storing, handling and use of hazardous waste. The EP Act empowered the Indian Government to make necessary rules and regulations to fulfil its objectives. It is under this Act and its rules that government takes all necessary steps such as the formulation of national environmental standards, to prescribe procedures for managing hazardous substances, to regulate industrial locations, establish safeguards for preventing accidents, and to collect and disseminate regarding environmental pollution. It also empowered the Government to set up parallel regulatory agencies to protect parts of the environment and to delegate its powers to such an agency. For example, the government could set up an agency to protect coastal resources. The EP Act provided for civil and criminal penalties for the violation of its pollution standards. For example, it imposes a penalty for non-compliance of standards with a fine up to Rs. 1, 00,000 or imprisonment up to five years or both.