PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa has asked the State government as to what steps it has taken to implement the Supreme Court directions to frame recruitment rules for appointment of chairman and member secretary of Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB).
Social activist Kashinath Shetye had raised the twin issues questioning the appointments to the board. In the first one, he had alleged that the government could not have issued a notification appointing the chairman, secretary and members of the board as the rules were framed on November 24, 2016 but withdrawn a year later, on November 29, 2017.
The division bench comprising Justice N M Jamdar and Justice Prithviraj K Chavan sought an appropriate affidavit from government and deferred the petition to July 9 for directions.
The apex court had fixed a time-frame for making rules, the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) principal bench had ruled in a landmark 167-page order against political appointments, stating that efficient and competent officials are needed to tackle environmental and other issues due to increasing industrialization and pollution in the country.
