Articles by Videh Upadhyay

The environment minister has stated that prior clearance for projects will now be the norm. It is good that this principle has now been reaffirmed since this very ministry's established policy of giving "in-principle clearance" was illegal all along. While this change is welcome, it should also lead to punishment of those who started projects without prior clearance and have thus been in clear contravention of the laws.

The principles of the draft national environment policy see the environment as a 'subset' of the larger 'sets' of poverty and development, and address sustainable development from an essentially anthropocentric and utilitarian view. The silence of the draft on how customary rights of access to and use of environmental resources are to be integrated with formal policy, law and the rights framework is deafening.

Despite the government's repeated assertions in recent years on the need for a decentralised, people-oriented and demand driven water management, these have not been converted into implementable solutions. While policy initiatives exist with regard to water user associations, watershed associations, and legal strategies are a much-needed prerequisite in order to evolve statisfactory working relationships between local bodies institutions and networks of formal and informal village groups engaged in water management.

The inadequacy of legislative drafting has created a regime of paper laws for panchayats. These laws do not respond to the spirit of the 73rd amendment, and even where they do, they cannot be implemented because enabling rules and orders have not been framed.

The role of the court as interpreter of laws and a reconciler of conflicting interests assumes greater significance in the context of the large legal space that has become available through the creative interpretation of provisions by the courts. The occasional reverses in the courts should not blur the larger picture of the expanding legal space, and the due recognition of the elasticity in existing legal provisions and the legal frame to enable interpretations consistent with fair play, equity and justice. A systemic departure and even a rupture from the existing regulatory regime may not be the only solution to the many intractable problems.