The National Green Tribunal has ordered a bailable warrant against Goa Principal Secretary Environment and Forests RK Verma on grounds of non-compliance with orders it issued. The order which comes during the hearing of a plea filed by an environmental NGO, has however, been withheld for a period of one week during which the State administration is to report complaint to the Green bench.
The order given by NGT’s principal bench, headed by Justice VR Kingaonkar 113/2013 was issued by the NGT against the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer RK Varma, is on account of ‘failure to comply with the direction given in the order dated May 29, 2013 for a sum of Rs10,000 to the satisfaction of the arresting officer.’
Principal Secretary RK Verma holds charge of several crucial departments like Forests, Environment, Mining and Public Works Department. The NGT had earlier in May this year, directed, the NGT the Principal Secretary of State of Goa to depute a responsible officer to personally attend the Tribunal on next date of hearing along with the relevant file. The bureaucrat’s failure to heed the directive, has now forced the NGT to issue the bailable warrant, which has also been held in abeyance for a week.
The green petitioners Goa Paryavaran Sangharsh Samiti had accused a mining company of trying to extract iron ore stacks in violation of law.