Blue Flag Beaches, and a Relaxation Made for a Certificate

In one line

India relaxed its coastal rules so that its beaches could win a foreign certificate, and the two notifications that did it show exactly how this law moves.

In the wording a student can write in an examination: by notification S.O. 2505(E) of 12 July 2019 and by S.O. 125(E) of 9 January 2020 the Central Government made provision in relation to the Blue Flag certification, permitting certain facilities and infrastructure required for that certification to be set up in the coastal regulation zone, and the episode illustrates the amendability of a regime that exists by executive notification rather than by statute.

What the Blue Flag scheme is

An international voluntary eco-label awarded to beaches, marinas and sustainable boating tourism operators by a foreign non-governmental foundation. To qualify a beach must satisfy criteria under four heads: environmental education and information, water quality, environmental management, and safety and services.

The last two heads require infrastructure on the beach: changing rooms, toilets, showers, a first aid post, drinking water, waste bins, signage, a control room, a solar plant, and access for persons with disabilities.

Why that was a problem in Indian law

Because the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification prohibits and regulates construction on the coast, and a permanent building on a beach is not among the things it permits.

The temporary tourism facilities the notification of 2019 allows are confined to shacks, toilets or washrooms, change rooms, shower panels, walkways of interlocking paver blocks, drinking water facilities and seating arrangements, and only under a tourism plan in the approved management plan and at least ten metres from the High Tide Line.

Several of the facilities the certification requires do not fit that list, and the Government wished them to be provided.

What was done

Two notifications were issued.

S.O. 2505(E) of 12 July 2019, made under the Environment (Protection) Act 1986, dealing with the coastal regulation zone in relation to Blue Flag certification.

S.O. 125(E) of 9 January 2020, a further notification regarding Blue Flag certification.

The effect was to permit the specified facilities and infrastructure required for the certification to be provided at identified beaches, subject to conditions.

Why this small episode is worth a chapter

Because it is the clearest available illustration of four things that run through the whole of this paper.

The regime is executive. A statute would have required an amending Act. A notification required a decision in a Ministry.

It is amendable in weeks. The coastal notification of 2011 was amended more than twenty times, and the notification of 2019 has been amended repeatedly.

Amendment is almost always relaxation. A student asked to evaluate the effectiveness of the coastal regime should be able to say that its instrument is one that has been loosened far more often than it has been tightened, and give an example.