Quite shocking news from this morning.
Excerpt:
"The environment ministry’s Parivesh website that used to provide details on the environmental impact of projects stopped showing these – including specifics on environment, forest, wildlife and coastal regulation zone clearances – last September after the ministry took a decision that such information would be provided only when sought under the Right To Information (RTI) Act.
An environment ministry official who asked not to be named said the rationale behind this decision was to protect the interests of project developers, and cited the sensitivity and confidentiality of some of the information. Activists and environmentalists who have long used Parivesh to gather information on how projects are impacting the environment claimed the rationale appears to be to make the system opaque.
The change came to light when HT asked the environment ministry why the website had not been updated since September. The decision to not disclose the information in the public domain was not known until now."
Link to news: Govt stops portal to track green impact of projects | Latest News India - Hindustan Times