Journalism of Courage
Entrusted with the work of monitoring the pollution levels of Pune,Pimpri Chinchwad,Satara and Sangli,the Pune office of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board has not recovered the fees of the joint venture sampling at industrial units.
This was revealed during the recent audit conducted by the Auditor General (AG) of the office.
The report,accessed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act,states that the Pune regional office of MPCB has failed to recover joint venture (JV) fees worth Rs 62.30 lakh. The fees are pending since 2008.
JV samples are conducted by field officers of MPCB along with industry representatives. Water samples and air samples are tested in MPCB laboratories and reports are sent to the industries.
In case the discharge levels are found to be exceeding the prescribed limit,action is initiated against the industries by MPCB.
MPCB levies a fee for drawing the samples and testing them. Pune Regional Office has more than 2,000 industries under its jurisdiction.
During the audit,the AG noted that various sub-regional offices (SRO) under Pune Regional office had failed to collect the fees.
The SRO I had a total of Rs 12 lakh pending,SRO-II had Rs 24 lakh,SRO Pimpri Chinchwad had Rs 8 lakh pending,while SROs Satara and Solapur had Rs 5 lakh and Rs 12 lakh pending respectively.
Activist Anupam Saraph said that this indicated another failure in the government machinery. Lack of proper accounting services and accountability is a sign of failure at many levels, he said.
