Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'What is govt. doing about pollution?' that was published in Newsband

What is govt. doing about pollution?

How much attention is our Government – both State and Central - paying to the problem relating to pollution? What steps are Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) taking in matter of eliminating pollution?

In a survey that was conducted, it was found that the approach of the States to their environment protection duties was no more than lip service. The findings make it clear that the position of Chairman of a State Pollution Control Board is often used to reward political loyalists. The candidates lacked prescribed qualifications, brazenly violating the Act relating to Prevention and Control of Pollution. The members of this Board were found mostly non-technical and not professionals.  

Major laws relating to pollution remain a dead letter in most States, with rivers turned into sewers transporting waste downstream. Such contemptuous disregard for the environment can continue only at the cost of public health.

The Surveyors should publish online the data they gather under various laws and rules, particularly on water and air quality, noise pollution, and disposal of different types of waste. These facts and figures should be directly published on the net. This is to inform the public as to what different industries are doing in terms of pollution levels. If this is done there’s a good chance that it'll cause some embarrassment to industries and make them mend their ways.

While the administration is undeniably responsible, the general public

has grown immensely callous in this regard too. Far from keeping the

forests and rivers clean, most don't feel any sense of shame while spitting on roads and other public spaces. This creates the necessity for compulsory environmental education policy.

As back as 1983, UN realized the importance to save the environment and commissioned the Bruntland commission. This committee did pioneering work, laid down the charter for saving environment from deforestation, pollution and coined the term Sustainable Development.

But India, it seems, has not made serious note of importance of clean environment. This is eroding India’s figure in Pollution map.

Mishandling of state pollution boards is one of the several examples of administrative rot set in the country. Political favoritism, neglect of specialists, absence of grievance redressal etc have gripped India's administration. The need of the hour is to initiate massive administrative reforms in the country. Unfortunately the above solution itself requires political and administrative will.

There are two aspects of pollution control. One is regulatory aspect and the other is awareness. Regulation is very poor. In fact, it is easy to break rules and in all likelihood no action would be taken for use of manufacturing processes that pollute water or environment. Although on paper there are laws to control pollution, in practice they are not implemented at all or implementation is faulty. There is lack of political and administrative will to implement pollution control rules and there are hardly any penalties for violation of rules. Hence we need action on

front of implementation.

City dwellers are often the major victims of the polluted environment. Society pays a heavy price as citizens bear huge healthcare costs on account of the polluted environment. Hence the citizens have to be involved in pollution control efforts by creating awareness of benefits of pollution free environment. Public awareness campaigns would be useful.

Thus it is high time our Government took stern steps to eliminate pollution in our country.