About the Star Rating System

The Environment Ministry is to rank and incentivize the states with this new system. The ministry will find out states that provide environmental clearances efficiently in short duration of time. It will then incentivize such states. For this, the star rating system provides marks to the states on a scale of seven. The states receive two marks for clearing a project in less than 80 days. One mark for clearing in 105 days. Zero for clearing more than this duration. If the state has less than 10% of projects for scrutiny, then one mark is provided and so on.

Features

It introduces conditions for State Environment Impact Assessment Authorities (SEIAA). These conditions are based on the following:

• Proposals waiting for more than thirty days
• Terms of Reference proposals waiting for more than thirty days
• Percentage of disposal of fresh terms of reference
• Environmental Clearances waiting for more than 105 days
• Complaints reassessed

The system will provide star rating to the SEIAA.  The rating is provided based on the performance of the authority in the past six months. The ratings are updated in the month end.

The average time taken to grant the clearance has been decreased to 75 days. Earlier it was 105 days. The 105 days is in accordance to the Environmental Impact Assessment Notification, 2006.