Lack of consultants and assayers in State Environmental Appraisal Committee as well as in SEIAA and the Environment Department have reportedly delayed the processing of applications heaped up in various offices. Certain staff are to be cleared by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF).

Of the 535 applications currently held by the SEIAA, 310 are for earth removal, laterite cutting and building constructions. Around 225 pursue for quarry operations. Clearing procedures, however, are getting delayed. “Only four or five applications are being discharged in a month as the process requires clearing of elaborate mandates including documentations, site inspections and mapping,” said the founding secretary and patron of the Registered Crusher Owners Association, Sainudheen Pathripala.

The 2,400 quarries functioning in the state possess licences issued by the Mining and Geology Department and local bodies, but do not have the EC enforced by the Supreme Court.

Among them, only 225 have applied for the EC. Applying through MOEF-approved consultants, as required by the government, involves cost, said Sainudheen. There are no accredited consultants in Kerala, and the quarry owners have to approach out-of-state consultants who charge them exorbitantly between `10 to 15 lakhs on account of documentations, certifications and environment-impact studies, he said.

The applications are to be cleared initially by a 14-member State Environment Appraisal Committee and subsequently by a three-member SEIAA. As the term of many of its members have expired, there have been no sitting of these committees in recent months, said Sainudheen.

According to a senior geologist T K Ramakrishnan, Supreme Court has made it mandatory through its ruling on February 27, 2012, that the state governments have to insist on ECs from quarry operators before they apply for renewal of licences each year. The applications without ECs should automatically be annulled, which puts the B2 category quarry operators into predicament, he said. Stating on applications pending in various offices, Department of Environment and Climate Change (DoECC) director C S Yallaki said that there were only 30-odd quarry applications before the SEIAA.

To sort out the staff crisis, Yallaki said that the state government has sent a new list of SEIAA members to the MOEF for sanction as the tenures of old members have expired.

While admitting there were no MOEF-approved consultants in the state, he said, process to appoint consultants and staff to the related institutions are on progress. Four additional staff have already been allotted to DoECC on contract, he said. Sainudheen said problems faced by small quarries can be eased visibly. Applications from quarries under B2 category should be cleared by an extended bench of the Pollution Control Board with an SEIAA member on it.