The Hindu : New Delhi News : Environment panel finally gets Government's nod

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Saturday, Mar 26, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Environment panel finally gets Government's nod

By Anjali Dhal Samanta

NEW DELHI, MARCH 25. For all the rhetoric, environment does not seem to be a concern area for the Delhi Government. Though the Delhi Pollution Control Committee had been directed nearly four months ago to constitute a Local Area Environment Committee to look into the hazardous waste problem of the city, the committee was approved by the Delhi Government only a couple of days ago.

Though the committee is meant to be in operation for only three months, surprisingly, the approval came in as late as this past Thursday, almost four months after the notification. While this delay reflects the Government's priority to the city's environment, it also spells trouble for the functioning of the committee.

Directed by the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee -- set up to oversee implementation of the hazardous waste order -- this Local Area Environment Committee has been conceived to act as a watchdog to monitor the efforts towards disposal of hazardous waste. The LAEC is supposed to look at all types of hazardous waste -- industrial, municipal and even domestic -- and report back to the SCMC about the progress made. The five-member committee includes IIT professors, Srikrishna and B. Guha, environmentalists Vijaylakshmi and Dunu Roy, and the DPCC member secretary.

However, despite a notification issued by the SCMC on December 1, 2004, the Delhi Government has been dragging its feet on the issue. Though the DPCC claims to have forwarded the proposal a couple to months ago, the response from the Government has only just come through.

"We have sent them several reminders and letters asking about the status of the LAEC. How much time do they need? This is when the notification even spells out the names of the committee members. This delay will cause a lot of trouble because we wanted to hold discussions with the industry to sort out the issue. But now, four months later, the entire situation on the ground is different and there is a lot of pressure on the industry. Now, there will be no room to discuss. The industry will be more concerned about closure,'' declared Mr. Roy.

Surprisingly, while the DPCC insisted that the approval of the Government was a pre-requisite, the SCMC had expressed the opinion that the approval was not required. During a recent inspection of the Capital by the SCMC on March 5, it was noted that "approval of the Government is not required as the Committee is to be set-up in-house, that is within the DPCC. All members have been vetted by the SCMC already''.

"The approval from the Government came through on Thursday. We have already written to the committee members informing them about the approval and asking them when the first meeting should be held,'' said the DPCC member-secretary, Sandeep Kumar.

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