CM, minister differ over choice of environment body chief

The Centre is likely to go by the recommendation of the Chief Minister of the state, said a senior official. While Bhoria retired as Secretary (Finance) on October 31; Disodia, considered close to Kiran Choudhry, had retired as Secretary (Forest and Environment) a couple of months ago.

When contacted, Bhoria said he was not aware if the name of any other officer too had been floating for the post of the chairman. He said now that his name had been cleared by the Hooda government, it should not take much time, but it was upto the Central government to decide when to give the green signal.

The post of HEIAA chairman has been vacant since Promilla Issar quit the post after being appointed member of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT). Issar retired as Haryana Chief Secretary earlier this year. With the post remaining vacant, hundreds of major projects in the state needing environmental clearance have stayed on hold.

The three-member HEIAA, constituted by the Centre in consultation with the Haryana government, was to give clearance to the construction projects on the basis of their processes and pollution levels up to a certain level. It was with the purpose of checking pollution and protecting environment in the wake of a number of mega projects in the state that the HEIAA had been constituted in April. Besides the chairman, HEIAA has one member and a member secretary.

The HEIAA, however, was different from the state pollution control board, which checks projects only for pollution levels. The job of the HEIAA is to study the impact of any project on the surroundings and suggest a pollution management plan for reducing the ill-effects on the environment.

P K Gupta, member secretary, HEIAA, and secretary, forest and environment, said more than 150 cases, mostly construction projects, have already been admitted by the HEIAA for clearance. These would only get clearance when a chairman is appointed, he said.