The Naveen Patnaik Government seems to have coolly forgotten about the much-desired Climate Change Action Plan for the State.

The Chief Minister, despite being known for his love for green cover and environmental issues, appears to have no time for environmentalism in his schedules as he has to attend other issues, lamented an environmentalist

Patnaik, who himself handles the Department of Forests and Environment (DoFE), is supposed to finalise the Odisha Climate Change Action Plan (OCCAP) in July, pointed out the environmentalist. The Chief Minister had launched the draft of the OCCAP on the World Environment Day on June 5 for its public review.

Odisha was the first State in the country to formulate the draft CCAP, which envisages an outlay of `17,000 crore in 11 key sectors over the next five years to move it towards a carbon-conscious and climate-resilient State. Its implementation was planned during the 2010-15.

A high-level Inter-Departmental Coordinating Committee was established under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary for the purpose. Principal Secretary of the Department of Forests and Environment was appointed as the convener of the committee.

There were 11 Working Groups covering agriculture, energy, fishery, forestry, health, industry, mining, transport, urban areas, water, coasts and disasters. The deliberation started in March and a draft Climate Change Action Plan was prepared with the support from the World Bank, sectoral experts from the World Bank, DFID and officials of the State.

As the draft OCCAP was hoisted in the website of the DoFE for collecting opinion from the people, many environmentalists presented their views with most of them blaming the Government for echoing the ideas of the World Bank.

Everybody expected that the State Government would take these opinions for consideration before finalising the CCAP. However, as usual, the bureaucracy, known for its callous approach, seems to have thrown the draft CCAP to the dustbin, said a worried environmentalist.