Files gathering dust

14/07/2018

After sleeping over the necessity of having comprehensive Environment Policy for several years the Government got a draft prepared through an agency in 2010 and process for finalization of draft was set into motion in 2011 when the Government constituted a Technical Committee. In a testimony of Government's absolute non-seriousness towards environment degradation, Environ ment Policy draft is gathering dust in the official files during the past nearly one year due to lack of coordination between the concerned departments. Moreover, fresh State of Environment Report has not been prepared since 2015 in blatant violation of the guidelines of Union Ministry of Environment and Forest.The Technical Committee headed by Chairman of the State Pollution Control Board and comprising of Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Director Soil Conservation Department, Director Environment and Remote Sensing, Chief Conservator of Forests and Ecotourism, Joint Director State Forest Research Institute and Regional Director, Environment, Ecology and Remote Sensing reviewed the draft in its meeting held on July 30, 2012. After analyzing the draft the Technical Committee proposed to constitute a sub-committee headed by Member Secretary, State Pollution Control Board and the convener of the Technical Committee sent the draft to all the members of the sub-committee for comments in 2012-2013.
However, before the sub-committee could complete the assigned task entire record got damaged due to flooding of Civil Secretariat at Srinagar in September 2014. This led to initiation of fresh exercise by the Department of Environment and Remote Sensing and finally the new draft was prepared in consultation with the experts and after analyzing the National Environment Policy last year. Thereafter, the draft was submitted to the Forest Department for consultations with stakeholders and inviting suggestions and objections. However, during the past nearly one year the draft of the Environment Policy is gathering dust in the official files in Civil Secretariat due to lack of coordination between the concerned departments. While Forest Department failed to conduct consultations with all stakeholders, the departments, which were approached for comments and suggestions on the draft, showed no seriousness in the matter and due to this, the exercise to have comprehensive Environment Policy which was initiated in 2010 failed to reached the logical conclusion till date.

Photo Gallery

BSE Sensex

NSE Nifty