S.P. Singh Parihar named chairman of central pollution board

Live Mint , Friday, July 15, 2016
Correspondent : Mayank Aggarwal
New Delhi: Ending a nearly four-and-half years’ wait, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has appointed S.P. Singh Parihar, a 1986 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, as a full-time chairperson of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

The Prime Minister-led Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) made the announcement last night.

The Narendra Modi government was initially looking for a candidate with at least a post-graduate degree in science, special knowledge of the subject and at least 15 years of practical experience in environmental protection. The new CPCB chief fulfils some of the criteria.

Parihar is a post-graduate in physics and has done M.Phil. in nuclear physics. He also did a short course on “Climate Change and State Preparedness: Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation” from The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in 2014-15. He also has had a short stint of around six months with the Union environment ministry in 2013-14.

The new CPCB chief, who is an IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre, was posted as joint secretary in the cabinet secretariat and has been brought in the rank and pay of additional secretary to CPCB, the country’s nodal pollution watchdog.

The CPCB, formed in September 1974, plays a key role in prevention, control and abatement of water and air pollution. The body is also in-charge of the installation work of real-time (online) monitoring systems for effluent discharge from highly-polluting industries into the Ganges, which gives it an important role in PM Modi’s pet project of cleaning the river.

The CPCB was without a full-time chief since February 2012 when then CPCB chief S.P. Gautam demitted office. Ever since, various officers of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change have been handling the additional charge of CPCB chairperson.

Interestingly, the appointment comes after three failed attempts. In July 2015, a selection committee at the cabinet secretariat rejected all 17 candidates shortlisted by the environment ministry, then led by Prakash Javadekar, for the post. Shortlists were scrapped twice by the ACC in 2013 and 2014 too.

Also, the appointment comes at a time when the Centre and state governments are debating the issues of pollution from vehicles and in rivers. In the past few years, the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) have passed a series of orders to control pollution from vehicles, in rivers and in ecologically sensitive areas like Rohtang.

Though environmentalists were hoping for a CPCB chief with a technical background they hope that the new full-time chairperson would make the pollution watchdog proactive rather than having a business-as-usual approach. The NGT has criticized CPCB several times for inaction on pollution-related cases.

“An ideal person holding the post of CPCB chief will be someone who has a proven domain expertise along with administrative experience rather than the other way round. This has been a consistent stand of the NGT. However, we hope that the CPCB institution gets strength from the new incumbent,” said Sanjay Upadhyay, an environmental advocate in the Supreme Court and managing partner of the Enviro Legal Defence Firm, an environmental law firm that also deals with training, education, publishing and outreach work.

 
SOURCE : http://www.livemint.com/Politics/Ny4hpbE4xes3Oi1qCzYQmO/SP-Singh-Parihar-named-chairman-of-central-pollution-board.html
 


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