National Mineral Policy 2006 - Department of Mines

step since small miners do not have such large impacts on the environment as towarrant public hearings.• Public consultations should be dispensed with for areas less than 50 hectares andalso for renewal of leases.• Public hearing should be strictly limited to issues arising out of the EIA report.The proposed notification should specifically spell this out, as unrelated issuestend to delay the processing of applications. Furthermore, public hearing shouldbe limited only to the people living in the area or to the legislators representing thearea or NGOs registered in that area, and outsiders should not be allowed toparticipate. Contributions and suggestions of outsiders should be restricted towritten comments from ‘other concerned persons’, which are alreadycontemplated in the procedures as a part of ‘public consultations’.3.47 An EMP has to be prepared under the MCDR and got approved by IBM. However,this EMP is not acceptable to the MOEF. The miner has to prepare two EMPs separately—one for IBM and another for MOEF. The Committee suggests that IBM and MOEF shouldprepare guidelines for a composite EMP so that IBM can approve the same in consultationwith MOEF’s field offices. This will eliminate anomalous situations where increase of even afew tonnes in production requires project authorities to get a fresh EMP approved from theMOEF although the IBM allows a grace of ±10 per cent, keeping in view the fluctuations inthe market situation and process complexities. If a single EMP is accepted in principle suchanomalies can be resolved in advance. The Committee feels the MOEF should also have acushion of ±10 per cent in production while giving EIA clearance.3.48 The country has gained considerable experience in matters relating to protecting theenvironment and there is much awareness of the need to work towards a clean and pollutionfree environment. It is, therefore, necessary that the environmental standards are codified bythe government after taking into account the ground realities and if some deviation becomesessential in view of the topography of the area, and the nature and behaviour of the deposits,there should be an appropriate mechanism to assist the mine owner to take corrective steps. Inthis regard, the ICMM’s SDF, the GRI system, and the Supplement should be the basis onwhich such codification can be undertaken. Preparing such a code may be one of the mainTORs of the joint working group proposed in paragraph 3.11.93