Green min does U-turn on pending notice for making rivers encroachment free

Highly placed sources in the ministry said that the government wanted to go slow on the matter, fearing backlash from various states, in an election-bound year.

The river regulation zone, which is to be notified on the lines of coastal regulation zone (CRZ) under Environment Protection Act 1986, would have legal teeth and would protect the rivers and their flood zones from all sorts of encroachments and structures. All structures – temporary or permanent -- in the vicinity of rivers would be required to seek prior environmental clearances from the centre just as activities along the coasts require prior approvals under the CRZ.

The mammoth magnitude of damage in Uttarakhand, last year, arising from the unbridled constructions on Alaknanda and Mandakini rivers, was also accounted for the lack of any statutory provision for the prevention of setting up of such structures.

The notification of the RRZ has been pending with the ministry since 2002. Former environment minister Jairam Ramesh had, in 2011, announced an early notification of the RRZ when he was shifted out from the ministry. His successor Jayanthi Natarajan also attempted to let the notification see the light of the day but was prevented amidst ‘pressure from the PMO.’ Several committees were constituted during the last 11 years to prepare the draft, but the ministry, on all occasions, stopped short of issuing the final notification. According to ministry sources, the draft of the statutory framework is almost ready, but the government is reluctant to go ahead with its implementation.

‘The RRZ is the need of the hour but there is no final word from the top (the minister) to go ahead with the notification. Rest all things (of the draft) are in place. We had placed several reminders on the matter to the previous minister but it was left in cold with no final word. The current minister is also not very keen on this,’ a top official of the environment ministry’s national river conservation directorate (NRCD) said.

When asked by the national green tribunal on the status of the notification, the ministry has informed the court that the draft was still being contemplated and was likely to take some time as the matter was being discussed with the states for their inputs on the issue. This was expected to take at least six months more. 

‘With the elections barely few months away, the government does not want to annoy regional political parties ruling various states nor does it want to lose its vote bank of lakhs of people residing on the peripheries of different rivers across the country. Bringing a stringent law to regulate them may fall back dearly upon the ruling government,’ a senior ministry official 

remarked.