Gauhati University students to create 'Mail Storm' opposing EIA 2020

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: The Gauhati University student community is all set for a movement opposing the Draft EIA (Environment Impact Assessment) 2020 Notification. The Student community is now ready to create 'Mail Storm' on Thursday opposing the Draft EIA 2020 notification. The 'Mail Storm' is an initiative started by Gauhati University AASU Unit and Law College AASU unit of the university. The student community is of the view that if the Draft EIA 2020 notification gets passed, then people will loss the power to raise their voice forever.

Lakhya Jit Das a student of Gauhati University said that they started the initiative on August 1 by asking the students to make a 30-40 second video opposing the Draft EIA 2020 and to post it on digital platforms by nominating five others to do the same. He said, "We received immense support from the students. We have received over thousand such videos. Now that we are planning for a mail storm, we need support and cooperation from people who are against the Draft EIA 2020. We urge the willing people to show their responsibility and to send emails to - eia2020-moefcc@gov.in, prakash.j@sansad.nic.in, pccf.assam@gmail.com, sudheer.ch@gov.in, president@iucn.org, ananda.dias@unep.org by writing their thoughts opposing the Draft EIA 2020."

Giving reasons to their stand against the Draft EIA 2020 notification the student community said, "The EIA new draft 2020 allows post-facto clearance. This means that even if a project has come up without environment safeguards or without getting environment clearances, it could carry out operation under the provision of the new draft EIA 2020. Secondly, the new Draft EIA notification reduces the time period of receiving public response from 30 to 20 days. For project-affected people, who are frequently forest dwellers or otherwise do not have access to information and technology, this will make it harder to put forth representations."

Also Watch: Meet Nibedita, the Assam Girl Who Cleared UPSC, Stood 697th