Environment minister wants to clean corruption in pollution control offices
Concerned over the continued rise in pollution levels in the national capital, besides in many other cities, Union Environment Minister Harshvardhan on Tuesday held corruption responsible for the same and said, “There is a need to clear the pollution of corruption from the system besides clearing air and water pollution.”
Harshvardhan is one minister who is constantly talking of rooting out corruption under his new ministry.
A few days ago while addressing the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) Board, he had pointedly asked how would his department know if the zoo keepers were providing the required amount of food or less to the caged animals across 160 zoos in the country and if there is no corruption in that process.
“The animals can’t complain if such a thing was happening,” he is reported to have told the officials.
On Tuesday, the minister issued a veiled threat to all the pollution control boards’ chairmen and secretaries that he would not tolerate corruption during an annual conference.
A large number of IAS officers and technocrats took part in the 62nd annual conference of chairmen and member secretaries of state pollution control boards and committees where Harshvardhan said an outof-the-box approach was required to resolve the issues. He suggested more use of information technology to curb corruption.
Pollution control boards in the states are largely seen as offices where nothing moved without bribe money. Like Nitin Gadkari had once dubbed RTOs as dens of corruption, Harshvardhan indicated that the pollution control boards, though in a much less harsh manner, by saying “there is a need to clear pollution of corruption from the system...”.
Harshvardhan is the third environment minister in the Modi government after Prakash Javadekar and late Anil Dave but pollution in various cities of the country continues to be a nagging issue. However, None of the minister has been able to resolve the pollution issue satisfactorily.
A recent draft report of the ministry of environment and forest (MoEF) had painted a grim picture of the country.
While quoting the findings of Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation (OEDC) it had stated that air pollution-related deaths rose by over 70,000 in just five years in India between 2005 and 2010.
The MoEF had asked for suggestions from all stake holders in May 2017 in the backdrop of rising pollution reports that had adverse global economic impact on India’s image.
In 2015 January, the American media had reported that then (visiting) US president Barack Obama could lose roughly six hours from his expected lifespan after spending three days in India’s capital inhaling the world’s most toxic air.
Obama was the guest at the Republic Day parade and celebrations that year and had stayed in Delhi for three days.
According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report, quoted widely then, India is 11th of the top 20 cities on the planet with worst air quality.
The WHO report was based on data collected from 1,600 metropolitan areas between 2008 and 2013.