Emerging pollution in Haryana, particularly in the district falling in National Capital Region (NCR) has arisen as a huge problem as it causes health hazards leading to untimely deaths of the people. Several factors do exist for the spurt in the pollution and polluting illegal factories and industrial units are among the main reasons for the same. Apart from aforesaid, acute shortage of staff in Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) also exists as another factor as it affects the functioning of the department. It came to light that nearly 68 percent of the total posts are lying vacant which continues to increase the troubles as, without sufficient staff, it is very hard to keep an eye on the illegal factories and industrial units.
SDOs play a crucial role to have an eye on such elements running illegal factories and mocking at rules and rules as they use to make field visits in a bid to tighten noose around the neck of those breaching norms. But what problem arises here is that the HSPCB is continuously suffering from an acute shortage of SDO’s which is a matter of serious concern requiring the government to fill the vacant post for the smooth functioning of the HSPCB. Out of the total sanctioned 70 posts, nearly 50 are lying vacant affecting the working of the department.
As many as 484 posts are sanctioned in the HSPCB and out of these, 327 posts i.e. 68 percent, in groups A, B, C and D stand unfilled which clearly indicates the prevailing scenario. Even the post of senior officials which fall in group A, namely Chief Scientist, Senior Environmental Engineer and Senior Engineer are lying vacant which affects administrative as well as the fieldwork of the department. In Group A, out of more than 60 posts, nearly 57 percent posts are lying vacant.
Besides, more than two-thirds of the total posts namely Scientists, Assistant Environmental Engineer, Tehsildar and Superintendent etc. in Group B are unfilled and out of the total about 150 posts, nearly 100 are lying vacant. Similarly, 70 percent and 50 percent posts are vacant in groups C and D respectively which causes the troubles of the department as it affects the working of the department adversely.