New Delhi: A parliamentary panel has pulled up the Union Environment ministry for "non-cooperative" and "unresponsive" behaviour of its officials towards public representatives and asked it to work towards greater budgetary allocation to fight air pollution.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change, in its 363rd report - 'Demands for Grants (2022-23) of the Ministry of Environment', directed the ministry to sensitise authorities to accord due courtesy to public representatives and make available the information sought by them.
"The Committee yet again expresses its deep concern on the issue of non-cooperative and unresponsive behaviour of the officials dealing with environmental matters towards the public representatives.
"The Committee reiterates its previous recommendation that the Ministry of Environment, being the nodal central Ministry dealing with these matters, must impress upon the state governments as well as their own officers to sensitize all the concerned authorities to accord due courtesy to the public representatives, attend to their grievances, respond to their communications and make available the information sought by them," the panel said.
Pulling up the ministry for failing to provide quantifiable details of targets and their achievements under the National Clean Air Program (NCAP) during 2021-22, the panel said it should make more efforts to get increased budgetary allocation for the NCAP considering the impact of rise in air pollution on climate change.
"The Committee is constrained to note this casual approach of the Ministry in furnishing the data and strongly recommends the Ministry to ensure that such data is maintained in a proper format, updated regularly and provided to the Committee in a manner which is convenient and insightful for the Committee to examine so as to get a clear picture of the actual physical and financial targets achieved.
"Funds allocated to NCAP and its utilisation needs a transparent elucidation. The ministry should make more efforts to get increased budgetary allocation for the NCAP considering the impact of increase in air pollution on climate change. The Committee, recommends that concerted efforts should be made by the Ministry for optimum utilisation of funds under NCAP," it said.
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Noting that a budgetary allocation of Rs 470 crore was made under the head 'Control of Pollution' in budgetary expenditure (BE) 2021-22 which was reduced to Rs 390.10 crore at the revised estimate (RE) stage, the Committee urged the ministry to take proactive steps in coordination with the state machinery towards controlling air pollution.
"The Committee recommends that there should be transparency in the funding mechanism of the ministry with the states/UTs, municipalities, SPCBs for better coordination and implementation of varied schemes under the head 'Control of Pollution'," it said.
Recognising the importance of plastic waste management and elimination of single-use plastics, the panel asked the ministry to run awareness programs on a regular basis as single-use plastics are a bio-hazard which not only impact wildlife and ecosystems but also pollute the environment.
"The Committee recommends the ministry to run awareness programmes on regular basis, to educate the people about the ill-effects of single-use plastics and encourage them to use other sources as a replacement to plastic products in day to day usage.
"The Committee also recommends bringing stricter norms and regulations to discourage the use of single-use plastics and also lay down clear allocation of roles and responsibilities," it said.
On the issue of man-animal conflicts, the panel recommended proactive steps by the ministry of environment, noting that the incidents were on the rise and still remain an area of concern.
"As such, there is an urgent need to minimize the instances of man-animal conflict that was resulting in both human and animal killings. The Committee recommends that the ministry should take proactive steps to sustainably manage and minimise man-animal conflict in a balanced manner, whereby the wildlife habitat is improved," it said.
The Committee urged the ministry to evolve a mechanism at the national level for uniform compensation, early settlement of compensation and rehabilitation of the victims of man-animal conflict.
PTI
