The National Environment Appellate Authority (NEAA) was supposed to give hope to those who came with grievances against environmental project clearances granted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. Yet, all returned disappointed.
In the last 12 years, the NEAA has overturned just a single case.
NDTV has access to documents which were obtained through an RTI according to which the NEAA has not had a Chairman since Justice N Venkatachalaiah retired in 2000. Its 'technical experts' panel comprises retired IFS and IAS officers, who are not members with a scientific and technical background as was mandated.
Also, an audit done by the CAG in 2008 shows NEAA has not kept any accounts. So where has its Rs 3 crore budget been spent?
"As the RTI reveals, none of these trips were related to any case before the NEAA. There is no system in place. There are ad hoc appointment and untrained experts as per their CV," said Ritwick Dutta, a lawyer in the Supreme Court.
A visit to the NEAA office confirms our worst fears. The office is completely empty in the middle of the week and the authority is as good as defunct.
When contacted, the technical members of the NEAA went on the defensive.
"We have no chairperson because the package is not attractive enough for a retired SC judge. It is incorrect to say we have not made site visits, we have but I don't have details," said JC Kala, an NEAA member.
The Environment Ministry, which set up the NEAA has washed its hands off the authority, saying it will anyway cease to exist once the Green Tribunal is set up by the year-end. This amounts to a waste of 12 years and crores of rupees in the name of environment regulation.
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