The Hindu: New Delhi: Sunday,
02 August 2020.
With
less than 10 days to go before public comments to the controversial
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification, 2020 are closed, it emerges
that the text of the notification has only been translated into three
languages, instead of at least 22, official correspondence accessed by a Right
To Information (RTI) request shows.
In a
June 30 order, the Delhi High Court had decreed that the draft be translated
into “at least the languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the
Constitution” within 10 days. There are 22 languages on that list.
However,
in spite of five reminders by the Centre to various States, the Centre got
translations only in three languages Marathi, Nepali and Odia according to
documents procured by environment activist, Vikrant Tongad.
The
draft was originally opened for comments from April 11 to June 11. This was
later extended because of the lockdown. After large protests stating that the
draft wasn’t widely circulated, and a petition in the Delhi High Court, this
date was extended to August 11.
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