Kerala - Kochi   

Panel orders reconstitution of LAEC

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, OCT. 13. The Supreme Court Monitoring Committee (SCMC) on Hazardous Wastes today asked the Kerala State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) to reconstitute the Local Area Environment Committee (LAEC) for Eloor and Edayar regions after it found that the committee set up by the board earlier was not in compliance with the SCMC directives.

The Committee has scrapped the LAEC constituted by the chairman of the pollution control board, Paul Thachil, as per orders issued on September 24 and October 8 respectively. The board had expanded the environment committee by including representatives of trade unions and the Kadungalloor panchayat.

Criticised

The SCMC had severely criticised the chairman's decision to expand the LAEC without seeking prior permission. The new LAEC will comprise of P. K. Ibrahim, lawyer of the Kerala High Court as chairperson, representatives of the Periyar Malineekarana Virudha Samiti, the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties, the Confederation of Indian Industry - Kerala, the Kerala Management Association and the Edayar Small Scale Industries Association. The member secretary of the pollution control board will be the convener of the new environment committee.

The Committee has directed the board to withdraw the notifications issued on September 17, 24 and October 10 regarding the constitution of the LAEC. It has also termed the decision of the board to make alterations in the composition of the environment committee as unilateral. The Committee members also pointed out that the original notification issued in connection with the setting up the LAEC was defective as it included three officers of the PCB. The SCMC had actually recommended inclusion of only one officer of the board in the environment committee.

Notification copy

The Committee has asked the chairman of the board to file a copy of the notification on the re-constitution of the LAEC with the member secretary, SCMC, New Delhi, as soon it has been issued. The SCMC comprising Claude Alvares, D. B. Boralkar and Tapan Chakrabarti had clarified that the board should not make any change in the composition of the newly-constituted LAEC without the prior consent of the chairman of SCMC.

Dr.Alvares said that the functioning of the LAEC came to a standstill following the inclusion of representatives of political parties. He said that the environment committee should complete the auditing of the 247 industrial units in Eloor and Edayar regions within six months. The environmental audit report prepared by the environment committee will be used while drafting the rehabilitation plan for those affected by the pollution caused by industrial units in Eloor and Edayar.

The SCMC had earlier decided to levy a collective fine of Rs. 2.5 crores on the entire industrial estate of Eloor and Edayar for being responsible for the pollution of the river. The Committee has also asked the board to shutdown all illegal outlets into the Periyar river immediately.

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