Approval of State Pollution Control Board Action Plan
Expenditure is more than three times the income
Kere Manjunath ಕೆರೆ ಮಂಜುನಾಥ್
BENGALURU: The board meeting has approved an action plan for three times the expected revenue of the State Pollution Control Board.
In the 243rd Board meeting, an action plan of ₹1,546.44 crore was approved despite the expected revenue of only ₹600 crore in the next three years. It is alleged that this is a plan to immediately spend the remaining ₹1,050 crore in the financial year 2023, which will bankrupt the board.
A board member, who did not want to be named, complained that 'Such a decision has been taken to spend one thousand crores as per their wish'.
The board meeting agreed to spend money for awareness and awareness programs including development of laboratories, water quality management system, software upgradation for 2023-24, 2024-25, 2025-26.
The board members objected to the opinion of Chairman Shanth Thimmaiah that it is not right for the member secretary to send the agenda of the meetings to the members without the approval of the Chairman and said that the agenda can be sent to the members by the member secretary. Also, the members unanimously decided to keep the video-audio recording of the board meeting aside and put aside the chairman's words.
The meeting approved the filling of 220 posts of the board and it was decided to request the government to fill up the rest of the posts except driver and watchman posts through the Karnataka Examinations Authority.
The State Level Enforcement Committee has been reconstituted and the members nominated by the Government have also been appointed. As per the KTPP Act, it has been decided to increase the amount of expenditure on projects approved by the Chairman and Member Secretary. It has been decided to amend the rules to increase the power of the Chairman from ₹50 lakh to ₹5 crore and that of the Member Secretary from ₹25 lakh to ₹2 crore.
BBMP's ₹53 crore extravagance!
The State Pollution Control Board has decided to spend ₹53 crore given by the BBMP to replace the action plan of 64 activities of the 'Vayu Yojana' selected on the Central Air Pollution Control Board's 'Prana' portal.
The money allocated to BBMP in the 15th financial plan is being spent for monitoring air pollution, road dust study, upgrading of laboratories, vehicle air pollution monitoring, survey, study and report preparation. The board members complained that this will not be of any use.
Project cost details
- finance; ₹747.66
- Chief Environment Officer–3; ₹233.17
- Waste Management Cell–1; ₹208.31
- administration; ₹123.71
- building; ₹115
- Groundwater Quality Study; ₹29.05
- IT; ₹24.50
- Branch of Mines and Geology; ₹18.45
- Awareness and training; ₹15
- Lake development; ₹13.35
- 17th category and e-electronic cell; ₹7.26 crore
- Waste Management Cell–2; ₹7.15
- Legal Branch; ₹3.83
- Action Plan Total Amount; ₹1,546.44
- From prospective sources of income; ₹600
- Amount remaining in board till April 2023; ₹1,050