The Editorial Analysis- A Stellar Fallacy

Table of Contents

A Stellar Fallacy- Relevance for UPSC Exam

GS Paper 2: Governance, Administration and Challenges– Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Recently, the Union Environment Ministry is decided to implement a ‘star-rating system’. This has sparked controversy after one of its official communiqués became public.

About: The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is one of the cornerstones of ensuring that the ecological costs of infrastructure development are minimal.
Mechanism for Approval:
- Prospective projects above a certain size and with a potential to significantly alter the natural environment must be first approved by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA).
  - State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) is comprised of State officers and independent experts.
  - SEIAA projects make up the bulk of projects for approval including building and construction, small mining, small industrial projects, and are considered ‘less polluting’.
- Projects that are even bigger or involve forest land- category A- must be cleared by an expert committee formed by the Centre.

About: Under Star-rating system, State-level environment committees that appraise industrial projects on their potential environmental risk would be incentivized with points for “transparency, efficiency and accountability”.
Aims. Star-rating system mechanism aims to facilitate the Government’s broader commitment to ‘Ease of Doing Business.
Criteria for Rating SEIAA: The proposed Star-rating system highlights seven criteria to rate SEIAAs on “transparency, efficiency and accountability”.
- On a scale of 7, an SEIAA, for instance, gets more points for granting a clearance in less than 80 days than for within 105 days and no marks for more.
- A score of seven or more would be rated ‘five star’.
Controversy: the star rating system proposed is to “rank” and “incentivise” States on how quickly and “efficiently” they can accord environmental clearances.
- Many Environment Conservationists believe that States, in the quest for more stars, would logically vie for speedily clearing projects rather than ensure a thorough appraisal.
Environment Ministry’s Response: The Environment Ministry said that the intention is not to hasten clearances but accelerate the pace of decision-making.
- Rather than files being sent back for every query, all objections must be compiled and addressed at one go.

The Government must take steps to increase trust in the system and ensure that all States have competent experts who can conduct appraisals without fear or favour.