Date:15/10/2004 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/10/15/stories/2004101501121900.htm

Back SCMC reconstitutes panel for Eloor, Edayar

Our Bureau

Kochi , Oct. 14

THE Supreme Court Monitoring Committee (SCMC) on hazardous wastes has directed the Kerala State Pollution Control Board to reconstitute the Local Area Environment Committee (LAEC) for Eloor and Edayar regions after it found that the committee set up by the board earlier was not in compliance with the SCMC directives.

The Committee scrapped the LAEC constituted by the Chairman of the PCB, Mr Paul Thachil, as per orders issued on September 24 and October 8 respectively. The board had expanded the environment committee by including representatives of trade unions and the Kadungalloor panchayat. The SCMC had severely criticised the Chairman's decision to expand the LAEC without permission.

The new LAEC will comprise of Mr P.K. Ibrahim, an advocate of the Kerala High Court as Chairperson, representatives of the Periyar Malineekarana Virudha Samiti, Peoples Union for Civil Liberties, CII - Kerala, Kerala Management Association and Edayar Small Scale Industries Association. The member secretary of the Pollution Control Board will be the convener of the new environment committee.

The Committee also directed the board to withdraw the notifications issued on September 17, September 24 and October 10 regarding the constitution of the LAEC.

Terming the decision of the PCB to make alterations in the composition of the environment committee as unilateral, the Committee members pointed out that the original notification issued in connection with the setting up the LAEC was defective as it included three officers of the PCB. The SCMC had recommended inclusion of only one officer of the PCB in the environment committee. The Committee asked PCB Chairman to file a copy of the notification on the re-constitution of the LAEC with the member secretary, SCMC, New Delhi, as soon it has been issued.

The SCMC comprising Dr Claude Alvares, Dr D.B. Boralkar and Dr Tapan Chakrabarti has made it clear that the board should not make any change in the composition of the newly constituted LAEC without the prior consent of the Chairman of SCMC. According to Dr Alvares, the functioning of the LAEC came to a standstill following the inclusion of representatives of political parties.