New Delhi, Dec. 19 -- India will soon have a cadre of private third party environmental auditors to ensure industries, processes, activities are meeting environmental norms, outsourcing a key responsibility of the State in an effort to cut delays and improve ease of doing business, although environmentalists are worried that this could end up giving industry a free rein.

The Union environment ministry has published a request for a proposal (RFP) for selection of Environment Audit Designated Agency (EADA), an autonomous organisation under the central government, which will specialise in conducting third-party environmental audits of projects, processes, and activities regulated under various environmental laws.

The processes to be audite...