Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Sunday sought upward revision in the rate of water cess to strengthen the financial position of the pollution control boards in the respective States. Badal, calling on Union Minister for Environment and Forest (MoEF) Parkash Javadekar at his residence, said that that the rates of water cess have not been revised since May 2003. Badal said that it was imperative for strengthening the financial position of the State boards. “Due to ever increasing work load of the State pollution control boards, there is a genuine need to increase their financial resource base for which this revision is urgently required,” he added.
Flagging up the case of change in criterion of allocation of receipts collected from water cess, the Chief Minister said that the proceeds levied under the Water Cess Act, 1977, were to be first credited to the consolidated fund of India, of which 80 per cent was reimbursed to the respective State Boards for their utilisation in various activities. Badal, however, said that this reimbursement takes a long time thereby hampering the functioning of the State boards. Henceforth, he urged the Union Minister that the State boards might be allowed to retain 80 per cent of water cess share and balance 20 percent should be sent to MoEF.
Raising another important issue, Badal sought Minister’s personal intervention to expedite the process of giving environmental clearances for 62 mining projects. Out of 89 mining projects submitted till date, environmental clearances of only 27 quarries have been granted so far. likewise, Badal said that 45 mines have been allotted to the Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation limited (PSIEC)’s executive director. The MoEF has since been requested to transfer the environmental clearances in the name of the PSIEC’s ED.
Referring to the cleaning of Budha Nullah, Badal told Javadekar that a bio-remediation project was sanctioned by MoEF in April 2012 at a cost of Rs15.28 crore for construction of five green bridges. “Under this project, three green bridges have been completed and remaining two would be completed by March 15, 2015,” he said. Badal urged the Union Minister to construct five more green bridges under the project as the downstream of nullah was about 16-kilometer long.