Minister of State for Environment, Forests and Climate Kirti Vardhan Singh. File | Photo credit: S. Siva Saravanan
The Center on Monday (Dec 1, 2025) said it had received a letter from the Tamil Nadu government opposing the exemption granted to projects involving mining of critical, strategic and atomic minerals from public consultation.
He also stated: “The exemption will not endanger environmental, social, health or livelihoods.” In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Union Environment Minister Kirti Vardhan Singh said the September 12 letter had sought withdrawal of the authority’s September 8 memorandum.
The memorandum exempted these mining projects from the public consultation requirement under the 2006 Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notice.
The Minister said that communications from Tamil Nadu have been examined in detail. The Ministry of Environment informed the State Government that the exemption was granted under the pre-existing provision of the EIA Notification, Clause 7(III)(i)(f), which allows projects relating to national defence, security or other strategic considerations to be exempted from public consultation.
According to the reply, the ministry clarified that the exemption is related to the strategic importance of critical, strategic and atomic minerals for India’s energy transformation, defense preparedness, space research and nuclear power programme.
It also said the exemption will not jeopardize environmental, social, health and livelihood interests, which will continue to be addressed through the existing EIA mechanism, including environmental management plan, expert panel review and post-environmental clean-up monitoring.
The minister also said that no change was required in the EIA notification as the exemption was already provided in the 2006 notification.
Published – 01 Dec 2025 21:02 IST
