Hello,

For the Union and state governments struggling to amp up the economy, industries are the best bet in doing the heavy lifting. But when industries fire on all cylinders, they invariably colour the earth and sky in shades of grey.

A regulatory agency that is expected to protect the environment and the life of people from such heavy pollution is the state pollution control board. But politicians perceive regulatory mechanisms as a drag on growth and people perceive them as a toll point to extract bribes, a slur that they rightly earned.

The Haryana government views the board as a hurdle for businesses. It has swung the other extreme by undermining the state’s pollution control agency to attract businesses under the call for greater industrialisation by the Union government, which too has been bushwhacking through regulatory undergrowth but mostly ends up chopping the main crop as collateral damage.

Internal documents, policy papers and interviews with the board’s officials have now revealed that the state government turned the regulatory board into a body that serves polluting industries by including it in the Right to Service Act despite objections from a top-ranking official.

The Service Act move, chaperoned by Chief Minister ML Khattar with the sole intention of climbing up the ease of business ranking of the Union government, imposed unrealistic deadlines on officials in granting permissions to industry.

The administration is now lining up board officials who missed the deadlines even by a day, for punishment.

The employees of the board, which is reeling under staff shortage, say they are being worked to death under the mounting workload and threat of punishment.

Imagine working in a department, carrying out more than 650 inspections in a year, while more than 63% of the posts are vacant.

Read the story by Astha Savyasachi and Tapasya on how the pollution control board and its rules were weakened under the BJP-led government in the race for ease of doing business supremacy.

Click here to read the story on The Reporters' Collective website.

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Haryana weakens pollution watchdog and rules in race for ease of doing business supremacy

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