New Delhi: The Election Commission, after initially refusing permission, has allowed the Union environment ministry to issue clearances even while the Model Code of Conduct is in place for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Indian Express has reported.
The code prevents the ruling party at the government from taking decisions that may influence the outcome of the polls. It is imposed from the day elections are announced. The Lok Sabha election was announced this time on March 16.
The report says that on March 23, the Union environment ministry had asked the Election Commission to let it issue Environmental, Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ), Forest and Wildlife clearances. This, it said, had been allowed in the 2019 general elections.
On March 28, the poll panel refused.
On April 2, the environment ministry claimed that since these clearances involve long processes spanning more than a year, it should be allowed to grant them. It also claimed that the clearances were not related to new projects.
On April 19, the Election Commission said it had no objection as far as the Model Code of Conduct was concerned.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court stayed two Union government orders of July 2021 and January 2022 granting ex-post facto clearance for projects across sectors without prior environmental approval mandated under the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification of 2006.
