Expiration date is March 2022; Amendment to appointment order
State Pollution Control Board Chairman Shanth Thimmaiah sacked
Kere Manjunath ಕೆರೆ ಮಂಜುನಾಥ್
Bengaluru: State Pollution Control Board chairman Shanth Thimmaiah's tenure was expired in 2022, the state government has issued a notification on Thursday dismissing him.
As per the Water Act and the rules of appointment of the chairman, Shant Thimmaiah has been relieved of his post with immediate effect as his term has expired. The Principal Secretary, Department of Forests, Biology and Environment has been ordered to hold the additional post of Chairman until a new Chairman is appointed.
According to Section 5(6) of the Water Act, the tenure of the Chairman of the Board is three years. As amended in the appointment order (FEE 143 EPC 2020) issued on 15th November 2021 as per the rules for selection of the chairman, the term of the current chairman has expired on 4th March 2022.
Amendment: According to the Water Act, the Chairman of the Pollution Control Board is being appointed, Vamanacharya appointed in 2012 and Lakshman appointed in 2015 have completed the term of three years each.
On March 5, 2019, Jayaram was appointed as the chairman for a period of three years. He resigned on June 20, 2019. From June 21 to September 21 Dr. K. Sudhakar was the chairman. Later, Dr. Sandeep Dave from September 21 to December 21, 2019; Dr. Sudhindra Rao from December 29 to May 2, 2020; Vijayakumar Gogi from May 2 to March 1, 2021; Brijeshkumar was the President from March 1 to November 15.
Shant A. Thimmaiah assumed the post of chairman from November 15, 2021 and his term was till March 4, 2022. According to the Act and Rules, the term of office of chairman started from June 20, 2019, when Jayaram was appointed. It will end on March 4, 2022. Since Jayaram, there have been six presidents during that period. However, in the appointment order of Shanth Thimmaiah, the period is wrongly entered as upto 14th November 2024. Changing it to March 4, 2022, the amendment order was issued by the Department of Forests, Biology and Environment.
As per this amended order, Shanth Thimmaiah has been released from the post of President on August 31 as his term has expired, the notification said.
Allegation of bias, violation of law
Suri Payala, member secretary of the board, wrote to the government on July 3 that the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement Act-1999 (KTPP) had been violated to conduct awareness programs worth ₹17.85 crore in a meeting of the 'Single Source Committee' headed by the Chairman of the State Pollution Control Board, Shant Thimmaiah. In this regard, a report was published in Prajavani on July 17 under the title 'Pollution Control Board - Conflict between Government'. Former Member of Legislative Council P.R. Ramesh had written a letter to the Chief Minister demanding an investigation. Based on all this, the government formed an inquiry committee.
The state pollution control board chairman has violated the laws in ordering awareness programs. According to the Water Pollution Act 1974 and the Air Pollution Act 1981, the Chairman of the Board has no power to constitute any committee. The investigation committee of State Audit and Accounts Department Additional Director Mahadeva, appointed by the state government, had given a preliminary report that President Shanth Tammaiah had formed a single committee in violation of it.
The report also stated that considering the proposal of five firms for giving advertisement worth ₹19.92 crore, considering four firms as a single source firm, with the intention of awarding contracts to targeted persons, bias was found with the intention of controlling competition. Prajavani published a report on this on August 17. The report of the inquiry committee is to be submitted to the government in its entirety.
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