JAMMU: Chairman, JK Pollution Control Board, Suresh Chugh, today reviewed the decisions taken in the Coordination Meeting of Central Pollution Control Board held with State Pollution Control Boards / Pollution Control Committees.
The Revised format was devised by the CPCB as per the directions of National Green Tribunal (NGT) for submission of Monthly Progress Report in the matter OA No. 673 of 2018 was discussed during the meeting. Threadbare discussion was held in a marathon meeting with both the Regional Offices.
The Chairman impressed upon the effective implementation of the directions of the NGT with regard to the issues of Water Pollution, Air Pollution, Bio Medical Waste, Hazardous Waste, Mining, Widening of Highways, COVID etc.
He sensitized the officers about the issues and advised them to send the information required for making compliance of NGT as per the time period fixed by the Head Office, so that same are compiled and forwarded to the Tribunal well before cutoff dates. He asserted that mechanism which is already in place at Divisional/Regional and Central Office of JK PCB for expeditious collection of information from the various departments, needs to be more proactive in view of the pro-activeness of the Courts, on the issues associated with the health of general public.
The Chairman, while acknowledging shortage of manpower hampering the pace of work, appreciated the efforts of officials of PCB for doing their work sincerely despite various constraints.
The Chairman, said that though the format devised by the CPCB/NGT are very exhaustive and required information at micro level, he advised officers to collect the basic data from the various agencies and compile the same in order to develop a data bank at Regional Directorate as well as Central Office for future reference. Once the data bank on basic information is created effective monitoring and compliance of various rules/directions of NGT shall become easier, he said.
The chair exhorted the officers to be alive to the issues affecting the common people with respect to air, noise and water pollution. Discussing the issue of new stone crushers, he said that sitting criteria be scrupulously be followed while recommending any case to the head quarter.
The meeting among others was attended by Member Secretary, JK PCB, B.M.Sharma; Regional Director, PCB, Jammu, Dr. Nadeem Hussain; Financial Advisor/CAO, Darshan Lal; Environmental Engineer, J. N. Sharma; Prl. Scientific Officer, PCB, Jammu, Neelu Sharma; AEE, A. K. Gupta; Scientist A, Randeep Manhas; Scientist A, Anuradha.
Rafi Ahmad Bhat, Regional Director, PCB, Kashmir, Dr Sabina Sultan, I/c Scientist C, Kashmir and Gazala Hassan, Scientist B, Kashmir joined the meeting through Video Conference.

KR Desk