Whether the objective of NABET's EIA accreditation Scheme is fulfilled?

[Prakash Dash]

Dear Friends,

Lets have a through discussion on NABET's EIA accreditation scheme. I donot think the objective of such a scheme is fulfilled.  It has many more flaws and the question is that what steps it has taken on its own to rectify in the first place?

[MANOJ KUMAR]

Few thing i wish to convey regarding QCI. 

QCI is registered as a non-profit society with its own Memorandum of Association.

QCI - accreditation fee ( now it is not mentioned in their application form earlier it was there) but Type is there which is like 

 Initial Assessment

1. Application fee
2. Documentation Review Fee
3. Office Assessment Fee
4. Analysis of Office Assessment and preparation of final report fee
5. Travel, boarding and lodging  (at actual)--- But they charge more than 3 star facilities.
6. Annual fee

 Surveillance Assessment (at the end of the 1^st year after the accreditation)

1. Document review fee
2. Office assessment fee
3. Analysis of office assessment and preparation of final report fee
4. Travel, boarding and lodging (at actual)
5. Annual fee.

The total fee for a company must be in 6 digit per year.

Below is peace of details of their RTI reply how much delay they do ..it shows its QUALITY , a organization suppose to accredited the other organization. These detail has been taken from their website http://www.qcin.org/rti/rti_status.php........ However it might not be update. But if it is not updated it also show their own maintenance of QUALITY. 

SL	Ref. No	Name of applicant	Date of application	Date of application received by QCI	Final Reply sent on
72	2012-13/QCI/71	Babulal	31-01-2013	11-02-2012	11-03-2013	IV	QCI	Completed
73	2012-13/NABH/72	Arun Kumar Singh	14-02-2013	20-02-2012		IV	QCI	In-process
74	2012-13/NABH/73	Arun Kumar Singh	13-02-2013	20-02-2012		IV	QCI	In-process
75	2012-13/NABH/74	Arun Kumar Singh	19-02-2013	21-02-2013		IV	QCI	In-process
76	2012-13/NABET/75	Parul Gupta	25-02-2013	21-02-2013		IV	QCI	In-process
77	2012-13/QCI/76	Babu Lal	05-05-2013	12-03-2013		IV	QCI	In-process
78	2012-13/NABH/77	Arun Kumar Singh	06-03-2013	11-03-2013		IV	QCI	In-process

[Dr Shekhar Upadhyay]

Dear, Friends,

Greetings from Upadhyay!

I can say whether the objective of NABET is fulfilled but I can share my views as I had started my carrier in 2009 (when the QCI accreditation became mandatory) I can give the summary of the development more particularly in my knowledge and experience.

I got a clear cut vision of my role and responsibilities with respect to EIA.

I got up gradation of knowledge through the activities i.e. site visit, planning, meeting the deadline, categories of project and type in information required for appraisal etc.

It opened up the new avenues for young masses desirable to make a carrier in field of EIA and a number of my juniors are making their carrier in last 5 years.

The days of one man show came to an end.

Though nobody is perfect so this scheme has seen several modifications making it more and more accurate and relevant for the excellence in the field for environment impact assessment. NABET is moving in right direction and numerous young masses are looking on it for their future. (Ache Din Ane Wale Hain).

Dr Shekhar Upadhyay

FAE (Socio-Economy & Landuse)

[Prof Dr V N Sivasankara Pillai]

The accreditation move a positive step to come out of the confusion created by unscrupulous "consultants". As usual the stakeholders among consultants try to make the process ineffective, and this could not be countered by the present scientific and legal frame works. Unethical practices must be treated as environmental crimes and treated accordingly.

Similar is the situation with accredited laboratories also. There are laboratories carrying out 24-hour noise monitoring for just Rs 900/- (nine hundred only)! 

There must be a vigilance department under a specially created vigilance department.

[KULDEEP M. GURAV]

Not only noise noise monitoring, everything.. some times per letter head Rs 200-300 any parameters with particular font and with particular font size.. if this is actual fact is it going to achieve final goal??? is it going to sustainable development??? is it going to improve our environmental conditions??? just a paperwork ... 

[hamida surani]

That is so true Rakesh Sir! Somewhere down the lane the emphasis on the procedure has become so much more important than the actual implementation. Moreover more time is lost on perfecting the Consultants for accreditation, the scheme and its formats and SOP's which leaves almost no quality time for the actual execution for important aspects like impact mitigation and working towards it. 

Rakesh Shah said:

The important thing is to have proper mitigation measures and therefore all environmental intelligence requires to be focused on the same i.e setting-up of pollution control systems, operating them to the best, understanding improvements required followed by doing the needful.

The NABET scheme is forcing environmental engineers/scientists to prepare so called PERFECT EIAs with very few engineers/scientists desiring to stress on the the mitigation requirement. The idea being to become a EIA consultant or a FAE or a EC since it pays much more than working in the field.

We will PROBABLY have A+ quality EIA reports but the Ganges will keep on deteriorating since no engineer/scientist would be available for or  remain interested in tackling the same. 

Ache din kahan se ayenge.