IT'S BEEN four months since the Union ministry of environment and forest (MoEF), on behalf of the Supreme CourtMonitoring Committee (SCMC) on Hazardous Wastes, sent a strongly worded letter to the chief secretaries ofall states and Union territories in India. Referring to the Supreme Court (SC) order dated October 14, 2003, whichhad directed states to strengthen their respective pollution control board (PCB) both in terms of infrastructure andhuman power.
The letter noted that most PCBs continue to defy the SC order. Also statutory provisions under the Water Act 1971 and the Air Act 1981, which specify that the chairpersons appointed shall be per-sonshaving "special knowledge or practical experience in respect to matters relating to environmental protection..."were being ignored. Hence the MoEF in its letter dated July 27, 2005, directed all chief secretaries to inform itwithin four weeks "regarding the qualifications of the chairperson and member secretary" in their state. Based onthis, SCMC will examine if the nominations meet the norms indicated in the M G K Menon committee report and theSC order and take further action.
Rather than initiate efforts to strengthen PCBs, most states havenot even bothered to reply to MoEF. Down To Earth (DTE) questioned M Subba Rao, additional director, MoEF, and member secretary, SCMC, who confirmed that "many states have not replied and reminders have alreadybeen sent to them, failing which more reminders would be sent". Rao refused to share information on statesthat have replied, claiming it would be presented to SCMC. He did not provide a time frame.
DTE found that the situation had not changed much in the last three years when it had reported how nontechnicalpeople, chiefly IAS officers, held key positions of chairperson and member secretary (see 'Realities unmasked',Down To Earth, October 31, 2002). At present, hardly three to four chairpersons are scientists with a knowledge ofenvironmental protection. The situation with the post of member secretaries is similar.
D B Boralkar, member secretary of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, says, "PCB's activities are essentially science and technology based. The position of the chairperson and member secretary should be held by persons havingexperience, knowledge and qualification in this field."