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12/11/2020 - Environment

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November 11, 2020

Central government needs to empower State pollution control boards to handle the problem of air pollution in the country. Explain (200 Words)

Refer - The Indian Express

Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.

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IAS Parliament 3 years

KEY POINTS

·       The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) based in Delhi is generally well funded and resourced, unlike the state pollution control boards (SPCBs) that are in charge of implementation of the rules that CPCB writes.

·       Take the role of a field officer at a SPCB. These officers are in charge of inspections of a wide range of infrastructure and activities. They also have additional duties of conducting awareness programmes, such as those directed at farmers in the case of stubble-burning.

Challenges of SPCB

·       First, there is a critical shortage of staff in most SPCBs. As an illustration, the Haryana State Pollution Control Board has been operating with a 70 per cent staff shortage. What this means practically is that a single officer is tasked to handle the demands of pollution control for an entire district without any subordinate technical staff.

·       Secondly, officers at the SPCBs do not get to develop any specialisation. The CPCB has a decent workforce and robust laboratories, where scientists once recruited get to work and excel in a particular area such as biomedical waste or hazardous waste or air quality management.

·       They are incentivised to specialise and are even promoted on the basis of it. On the other hand, SPCBs don’t have such a stratified system, and the same officer is in charge of all these pollution categories, making it impossible to gain expertise and excel in any one area.

·       Fourthly, SPCBs are chronically underfunded. For instance, the funds of several SPCBs such as Haryana’s largely come from “No Objection Certificates” and “Consent to Operate” that the boards grant to industries and projects, rather than budgetary allocations by the government. Owing to this, SPCB officials are unable to spend on critical functions.

·       Finally, SPCB officials are at times given additional responsibilities that are unrelated to pollution control. Haryana’s SPCB, for instance, has poultry farms under its ambit.

·       Our fight on air pollution rests on the shoulders of these overworked, underfunded, multitasking professionals, who would be successful only if they were given a chance. India must empower SPCBs to act by giving them the necessary funds, human resources, tools and technologies.

Sai Sri Dasaroju 3 years

Please review

IAS Parliament 3 years

Try to underline the key points and avoid writing general statements, include data to support your arguments. Keep Writing.

aswin 3 years

Please review

IAS Parliament 3 years

Good attempt. Keep Writing.

Answer writing practice 3 years

I have added answer pdf again sir

kindly check my answers

IAS Parliament 3 years

Try to explain the flowchart, no need to double underline key points, single underlining will be enough. Keep Writing.

Answer writing practice 3 years

Sir

kindly review my answer &

Thank you for the previous suggestion.

IAS Parliament 3 years

Try to upload the answer again, the file is not openong.

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