When Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board (JSPCB) had in 2012 come up with one of the finest vision documents in country in order to not only restrict pollution level where it used to be at that time in State but also to make lively efforts in reducing it in future, it was considered that the statutory body would lead entire country in coming with similar, potentially impactful law to help country breathe free in pure air.
Five years down the line, the vision rests in document, and document rests somewhere buried in one of the almirah, the ultimate outcome of thousands of such papers in country.
Ironically, JSPCB Chairman AK Pandey too, remains as reluctant towards activities and responsibilities of the Board citing acute manpower and resource crisis amid images provided by various satellites suggest that the air pollution level is increasingly heading towards alarming situation in various parts of State.
Only on Saturday, that the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Saryu Roy asked JSPCB Chairman AK Pandey to translate visions into reality, to which Pandey nodded semi-consciously.
“Our helplessness caused by acute manpower shortage is not even a secret by now. We are not in a position to enforce anything, be it banning smoke spewing factories or banning uses of banned plastic bags. We can’t even conduct survey and regular visits,” said Pandey. He added that everytime he came up with list of least required manpower in the agency, the government kept the list with it and recruitment processes remained moving from here and there.
But manpower shortage is not the only thing that has kept JSPCB away from scrutinising and slapping fines on companies or organisations if and when required. It has also been assumingly suffering from similar syndrome many other organizations have been suffering from: thinking everything other than what it was meant to think about. And it clearly reflects in one of many other admittance and confessions of Pandey.
“The moment you think of slapping fine to a smoke spewing unit, suppose of power producing unit, you have to also think of shortage of power the State has already been suffering from. This is true for any industry. Slap fines or ban one thing and you will find hundreds of those associated with that trade converging on roads against your move and you can’t do anything other than to keep things suspended,” Pandey said.
His version matches with the fact that JSPCB has registered only one case against violation of Air Act that came into effect more than three decades ago, in 1981. Environmental lawyer and legal initiative for Forest and Environment (lIFE) Member Ritwick Dutta also extends Pandey’s words saying that only one and half cases on average early had been registered among those violating air pollution norms. “Only 52 cases since 1981 have been registered in India under Air Act in which 42 come from Maharashtra alone which has started air pollution seriously during recent years,” said Dutta.
Financial crunch has undoubtedly left PCB with no other alternative than to love status quo as far as taking proactive measures to protect environment is concerned. “Ironically, State doesn’t have separate funds for us. We have to generate funds internally, major source of which comes in form of fees which we charge against granting environment related nod to companies. So, in place of banning some unit, granting them to operate becomes more profitable for us,” said Pandey.