Public participation in environmental decision making, With special reference to project in Rajasthan

Abstract

Development, is the process of producing or creating something new or more advanced; a new or advanced product-according to the Oxford learners' dictionary. Development has spread to different parts of the world, though its scale varies with each country."One of the fundamental prerequisites of the achievement of sustainable development", says Chapter 23 of Agenda 21 (the programmatic declaration emerging from the 1992 Rio de Janeiro UN Conference on Environment and Development), "is broad public participation in decision-making." (Economic Commission for Africa, 2004) Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)EIA was first formally developed as part of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 in the United States for considering possible impacts prior to a decision being taken on whether or not a proposal should be given approval to proceed. It consequently now has become a