There is now no reason for the government to further delay the appointment of a full-time Chairman and a full-time Member Secretary to the State Pollution Control Board. With the Supreme Court having set aside the National Green Tribunal (NGT) order that made special knowledge or practical experience in environment protection studies mandatory for both posts, the one hurdle that the government was facing in finding candidates who met the requirements has now been removed. The time now is for action and it should come immediately as the Goa State Pollution Control Board has remained sans a fulltime Chairman and Member Secretary for over a year.
The post of Chairman was vacated in March 2016 when the then chairman, Jose Manuel Noronha, was transferred as chairman of the Goa Public Service Commission and a few months later, the three-year term of the existing GSPCB and its Member Secretary Levinson Martins ended in June 2016. Currently holding the post of chairman of the pollution control board is the Chief Secretary, who by virtue of his main position has other duties besides those of the board. Yet, in the past few months, there have been various times that the board has stepped in very strictly on issues, the Sonshi mining instance being one of them.
The NGT directive was set aside because the Supreme Court felt that the tribunal had overstepped its jurisdiction, not for any other reason. And so, while the Supreme Court has set aside the NGT order, it has, however, not made it easy for the government to appoint just about anybody of its choice to the post, but calls upon States to bring in professionals or experts on the board.
It very clearly in its judgement says, “On the grievance relating to the issue of guidelines by the NGT, the meat of the matter concerns the appointment of officials who are experts in their field and are otherwise professional. This is for each State government to consider and decide what is the right thing to do under the circumstances – should an unqualified or inexperienced person be appointed or should the SPCB be a representative but expert body?”
This statement of the court obliges, if not forces, governments to ensure that the appointment to the top pollution control board posts, are of persons who are experts in the field, and not of people who are unqualified and may make errors of judgement, especially in relation to the provisions of the Air and Water Acts. The SC judgement should, therefore, in no way be taken as licence to constitute the board with persons who would do the bidding of the government. It instead enjoins upon the government to uphold the high moral ground by appointing only experts to the boards, who would have the environment and its protection as their priorities.
The Court went a step further to remind States that the Central Government had in the past at regular intervals requested that appointments to these posts should be of persons who could ‘add value and stature to the SPCBs by their very presence’ and whose expertise could be utilised in preserving and protecting the environment.
As the government now gets into appointing a new Chairman and a new Member Secretary to the Goa State Pollution Control Board, expertise in the field and concern for the environment should be the qualifications sought in the candidates. In the coming months, with the mining season set to start afresh, the pollution control board is going to have various issues to handle, and only experts would be able to do justice to the task ahead.
