Rajasthan State Environment  Policy ( SEP ), 2010 :

Objectives :

The objectives and principles of the State Environment Policy are the same as those on which the National Environment Policy, 2006 is founded. Broadly, the SEP aims to:

 (i) Conserve and Enhance Environmental Resources by protecting critical ecosystems and natural and man-made heritage, ensuring equitable access to environmental resources for all sections of society, ensuring judicious use of these resources to assure inter-generational equity, and ensuring their efficient use to maximize productivity and minimize environmental degradation.

(ii) Assure Environmental Sustainability of Key Economic Sectors by integrating environmental concerns into policies, plans, programs, and projects for economic and social development, so that these do not erode the very resource base on which they are dependent.

 (iii) Improve Environmental Governance and Build Capacity by assuring transparency, rationality, accountability, time and cost effectiveness, participation, and regulatory independence in the process of environmental management and regulation. The policy should also ensure higher resource flow for environmental conservation and promote beneficial multi stakeholders partnership.

The basic principles guiding these strategic interventions are the same as those documented in the National Environment Policy, 2006, that is:

 (i) Human beings are at the center of concerns for sustainable development and are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature.

(ii) The right to development must be fulfilled with equity for present and future generations across all sections of society.

(iii) Environmental protection is an integral part of the development process and cannot be considered in isolation from it.

(iv) Where there are credible threats to key environmental resources, the ‘precautionary approach’ shall be followed and lack of full scientific certainty will not be used as a reason for not taking mitigatory action.

(v) Production and consumption activities will aim for economic efficiency by assigning economic value to the cost of environmental services, ensuring that polluters pay for the cost of pollution, minimizing wasteful use and consumption of natural resources, and minimizing institutional costs and delays in environmental management.

(vi) Decentralization of powers from a Central Authority to State and Local Authorities could empower the public authorities to more effectively address locIal environmental concerns.

(vii) Environmental concerns must be integrated into sectoral policy making and policy research, and linkages must be strengthened among the various agencies charged with implementation of environmental policies at the central, State, and Local Self-Government levels. 

(viii) It is preferable (and often cheaper) to prevent environmental damage from occurring, rather than attempting to restore after degradation.

(ix) If endangered species and natural ecosystems of special importance to sustaining life, providing livelihoods, and general well being are threatened by a developmental activity, environmental offsetting measures must be undertaken to restore as nearly as feasible the lost environmental services to the affected populations.

Strategies and Actions :

 The set of strategies and actions to redress the key environmental problems of the State are covered under three broad areas:

(i) conserving and enhancing environmental resources;

(ii) assuring sustainability of key economic sectors; and

(iii) improving environmental governance and building capacity

  (i) Conserving and Enhancing Environmental Resources :

 Water, land, air, forests and biodiversity are key resources that must be conserved and enhanced. At the same time, vulnerability assessment and adaptation measures should be undertaken in the vulnerable sectors to mitigate the impacts of climate change, especially on the poor sections of society.

(ii) Assuring Environmental Sustainability of Key Sectors :

 Certain sectors such as mining and tourism are the backbone of Rajasthan’s economy. Certain others such as energy and urban sectors serve as engines of economic growth. In the rural sector, pastoral nomadism is a significant source of livelihood for a large number of people. Therefore, a comprehensive strategy of planned development coupled with improved environmental practices is critical to reduce the environmental pressure / burden on resources and assure environmental sustainability of these key sectors.

( iii ) Improving Environmental Governance and Building Capacity :

 Elements of environmental protection are deeply ingrained in the governance system of India. Beginning mid seventies, a number of constitutional, legislative and regulatory provisions related to environment were enacted and institutionalized within the three tiers of government – the Centre, State, and local bodies. At the same time, efforts have been made to mainstream environmental concerns in developmental activities, and sectoral policies increasingly integrate the need for environmental protection as a means of sustainability. India is also signatory to several multilateral agreements, which reflect its commitment towards a better global environment. In Rajasthan, the Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board (RSPCB) is the key enforcement agency responsible for regulating industry and overseeing environmental issues in the State.

There are essentially three areas in which the Board needs to be strengthened:

Consent Management: The RSPCB uses a very long drawn process for issuance of CtE/CtOs. Further, the air and water consents and hazardous waste authorizations (if any) are processed separately, leading to different time schedules when the CtOs come up for renewal. The Board has already started addressing these issues and will benefit by innovating on the procedures for CtO and CtE so that the time in granting the approvals is reduced.

Monitoring and Enforcement: RSPCB has formulated certain norms for effective verification of compliance by the industrial units. According to these norms, the frequency of inspection and sampling range from once in six months for 17 highly polluting large/medium red category industries, to once in 36 months for orange category small scale units, to once in 10 to 15 years for large/medium and small units categorized under the ‘other’ category. The monitoring and enforcement capacity of the RSPCB needs to be further strengthened. The Board may consider implementing a procedure of randomized surprise inspections in which the industries to be inspected are identified randomly through a computerized selection process and the inspections are carried out without any forewarning. Standardized approaches may then be used to deal with different levels of violations, which may be technical, minor or major violations.

Institutional Capacity: Study of the Board has reviewed in detail the staffing of the RSPCB in relation to the number of districts, population covered, area, and number of industries under consent management, and compared these with the staffing norms of other SPCB such as Karnataka, West Bengal, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh.

The functions of the RSPCB should also be expanded to cover sensitization of relevant stakeholders and seek their inputs into the overall environmental management process. Besides the RSPCB, another key agency at the State level is the Department of Environment (DoE), which presently carries out a three way liaison between the MoEF, the RSPCB, and the other departments of the State government. The DoE essentially performs the functions of reviewing and providing environmental inputs to various state government policies and programs. The DoE, however, has very limited technical staff.

Policy Review and Implementation :

As development imperatives in the State and their environmental implications change, new environmental priorities will emerge over time. Changes in national and global environmental regimes will also affect state level environmental issues. Therefore, the State Environmental Policy needs to be a dynamic document, which is subjected to periodic review and aligned with new knowledge and developments in the forthcoming years.To assure implementation of this SEP, a State Environment Mission has been constituted, which will be supported by Task Forces with specific agenda and action plan, and institutional arrangements and resources for implementation of the proposed measures.