KOZHIKODE: Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, which released its Five-Year Strategic Plan (Aligned with 12th Five-year Plan) 2012-13 to 2016-17 on its website on Wednesday, has pointed out that the inadequate institutional, financial and infrastructure facilities of the Central and State Pollution Control Boards was affecting the environment Ministry’s mission. This is mentioned in the section of the document that describes the strengths and weakness of the Ministry.Apart from describing the vision for the 12th Five Year plan, the document points out that the CPCBs and SPCBs, which are entrusted with the responsibility of enforcing the notified standards and provisions of various environmental laws, have not been able to effectively exercise their powers because of capacity constraints. Pollution Control Boards are the main instruments for standard setting, Research and Development and compliance and enforcement. Given the range of responsibilities entrusted to them, they are grossly under-staffed and face resource crunch in many states, the document says. It also notes that thousands of environmental cases are pending in various courts across the country. Speaking to ‘Express’, one of the top officials in the Kerala State Pollution Control Board agreed to the finding. “What is pointed out in the document is correct. Pollution Control Boards across the country are facing the same issues. In the case of Kerala, the Board is still running with the same number of staff as it was in the 1980’s. Though several new sections have come under the Board, state government has not created additional posts,” he said. He said that even after the Supreme Court monitoring committee had suggested the state government to create 21 posts and the proposal was still awaiting the government’s approval. With the currently available resources, we would not be able to enforce the responsibilities, the official added. It also notes that the implementation of various schemes of the Ministry has suffered from weak monitoring mechanisms., time and cost overruns and sub-optimal utilisation of assets by various states.On providing adequate finance for the boards, the document says that the environment is still low in the priority of the state governments. Most of the state boards receive hardly any financial support from the state governments and are totally dependent on cess, it added.
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