The aspiring industrialists of the Kashmir valley have alleged that ‘certificates of consent to operate units’ are on sale in the Pollution Control Board (PCP).They alleged that the board meant to control the pollution has become a hub of corruption with the pollution level increasing fast.“The Jammu and Kashmir land allotment committee has allotted me one Kanal of land at one of the industrial estates of the Kashmir. Accordingly the DIC Srinagar asked me to bring the consent of establishing the unit from the PCB before going further in the case, but when I approached the PCB, the District officer Srinagar PCB asked me to arrange 15000 for issue of consent,” Mudasir (Name changed) told KNS.He said that when he asked the official that why he has to pay the money, the official replied that if you really mean the NOC then you have to pay, otherwise you will never get the NOC.Interestingly the forest minister had called upon the functionaries of the PCB to ensure complete transparency, accountability and efficiency at all levels and had directed the concerned to immediately shift to on-line system to ensure transparency and avoid delays in granting these certificates.
The aspirant industrialists alleged that though they have brought the issue into the notice of higher authorities of Pollution control Board and government, but nobody cares for them. “Here is no action against corruption. Everybody is corrupted here,” they alleged and appeal forest minister Chowdary Lal Singh to intervene.“We want to know from the government what the responsibility of this Organization is? Should we understand that the PCB is being established to fill the pockets of the officers sitting in the offices,” they said.Sources also said that one can guess the level of corruption in Pollution Control Board that the said department has issued many NOC’s against money to those who have not installed any pollution controlling device in their factories.Sources said that the PCB is a complete failure and it would have been better for the government if they would have found out some other alternate of pollution control board.
Sources said that the staff within the pollution control bord is not interested to bring about transparency in the system.It is pertinent to mention here that members of environment committee of the state legislative assembly had also accused pollution control board (PCB) of corruption.MLA Homeshalibugh, Abdul Majid Larmi, who is also the member of environment committee of the assembly had alleged that the pollution control board meant to control the pollution has become a hub of corruption with the pollution level is increasing fast.“You can guess the level of corruption in Pollution Control Board that my own business partner in Khutwa without installing any pollution controlling device in his factory managed to obtain NOC from PCB against 2 lakh rupees,” MLA Homeshalibugh, Abdul Majid Larmi had said in a seminar.Sources said that the PCB has not even achieving physical targets to create air, water and noise pollution monitoring infrastructure. (KNS)