New Delhi: Lack of eligible candidates, recruits not joining, and court proceedings putting brakes on recruitments and promotions. These are among the reasons why pollution control boards across states and union territories are facing a staff shortage, the government informed parliament Monday.
Responding to a question by Congress Lok Sabha MP K. Gopinath, Minister of State for Environment, Forests, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) Kirti Vardhan Singh acknowledged that pollution control boards and committees across the country had nearly 50 percent of their posts vacant.
The reasons behind the staff shortage include pending recruitment approvals, delays in sanctioning staffing patterns, and restructuring and upgradation of posts, the minister said in the written response.
Other reasons listed by the ministry were the lack of suitable candidates, court cases impacting recruitments and promotions, and posts proposed for surrender.
“Appointment of officers and employees of the state boards and pollution control committees is being done under the regulation made by the State Boards/PCCs,” the reply read.
The ministry response added that the Centre has reminded the state governments and union territory administrations to fill these vacancies at the “earliest”.
A report presented before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in April last year highlighted that nearly 50 percent of the sanctioned posts in the state pollution control boards in India were lying vacant.
The report went on to say that out of the 12,016 sanctioned posts in 28 state pollution control boards and eight pollution control committees, 6,075 were unfilled—amounting to 50.6 percent.
It was found that the Bihar Pollution Control Board was the worst hit by staff shortage. The state body had 209 out of the sanctioned 249 posts vacant—which came to a whopping 84 per cent shortage. Bihar was followed by Jharkhand, where 198 out of 271 posts were unoccupied.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)