Stalin demands withdrawal of exemption to mining of critical and atomic minerals from public consultation

With environmentalists raising alarm bells, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president MK Stalin on Friday demanded that the Union Government withdraw the exemption given to mining critical and atomic minerals from the purview of public consultation, maintaining that it is unacceptable.

“Dispensing with public consultations, amounts to an impermissible executive amendment of law and is therefore unsustainable…Policy changes of such significance must be deliberated transparently in Parliament and State Legislatures, with due consultation of the States and the Public. Proceeding otherwise would run counter to the spirit of cooperative federalism and to the democratic ethos of our country,” he said in a Demi Official (DO) letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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He drew attention to the potential impact of the changes through the Office Memorandum (OM) of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and called for its immediate rollback. “The coastal districts of Tamil Nadu are endowed with deposits of Rare Earth Elements embedded in beach sand systems. These coasts are ecologically fragile and highly vulnerable. The sandy beaches of the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay are home to endangered turtle nesting grounds, coral reefs, mangroves and sand-dunes that serve as natural barriers against erosion and cyclonic events. These ecosystems sustain biodiversity…Mining in such regions is therefore inherently eco-sensitive and demands rigorous scrutiny with fullest involvement of local communities,” said the letter.

The Chief Minister pointed out that the EIA Notification 1994, amended in 1997, introduced mandatory public hearings, a landmark step that has since become integral to participatory environmental governance. It was reinforced in the EIA Notification 2006. As such, exempting projects from public consultation would deprive local communities of their right to raise legitimate concerns relating to livelihood loss, displacement and environmental impacts and weaken participatory democracy, he added.

On the legal concerns impinging upon the OM, Stalin said the NGT has, in the past struck down OMs which sought to dilute statutory safeguards. Further, the Supreme Court in the past had held that substantive amendments to the EIA framework could not be brought about byway of executive instructions such as OMs and such instruments could not override statutory notifications, he added.

“Public hearings are a mandatory safeguard for ecology, livelihoods and democracy. I urge you to roll back this memorandum and ensure that such important policy decisions are first discussed in Parliament and with the States,” he wrote on ‘X’, seeking the intervention of the PM.