In Haryana, it is the responsibility of the State Pollution Control Board is to ensure that there is a proper assessment of the air and water quality along with noise pollution as well as to take all necessary steps to prevent it ensuring the stern action against the guilty stakeholders. But in this context, it has come to light that the State Pollution Control Board, is itself facing an acute staff crunch on a large scale. Not only is there a shortage of experts in the laboratories of the Board, but the laboratories are also not being upgraded. In such a situation, the quality of air and noise pollution is not being accurately assessed and pollution is increasing continuously. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has also expressed objections and displeasure over this issuing instructions to the state government to fill the vacant posts in the board. Environmentalist Varun Gulati has been raising the issue from time to time and had also filed a petition in NGT regarding this earlier. The matter was heard in April, after which three months later in July, the board had to present its side before the NGT regarding filling the post.
According to the reply filed by Haryana Pollution Control Board before NGT on 30 July 2024 in the matter of shortage of staff, a total of 483 posts are approved in all four categories in terms of total work in the board, out of which 450 posts are regular and 33 posts are outsourced. A total of 66 posts are approved in Group One, while only 40 of these posts are filled, while 26 are vacant. The total number of sanctioned posts in Group B is 149, but only 84 posts are filled while 65 posts are vacant. The total number of sanctioned posts in Group C is 189, out of which 82 posts are vacant. Similarly, the number of sanctioned posts in Group D is 79, all of which are shown to be filled, but outsourcing staff is being used instead of sanctioned regular posts. Apart from the above, it is important to mention here that the total number of sa2024nctioned regular posts is 450 out of 483, but out of these only 202 regular posts are filled, while the remaining 248 posts are vacant. On the other hand, the number of sanctioned outsourcing staff is 33, while 108 outsourcing staff have been employed in the board.
Senior Scientist and Environmental Engineer play a key role in Pollution Control Board to prevent the spread of pollution, but the gravity of the situation can be gauged from the fact that the posts of Senior Scientists and Environmental Engineers are also vacant on a large scale in the Board. According to the data, 9 posts of Senior Scientist are sanctioned in the Board but all the 9 posts are vacant which clearly depicts the gravity of the situation.
Likewise, 33 posts of Environmental Engineer are sanctioned but about 25 percent of these i.e. 8 posts are vacant. Apart from this, 8 out of 10 posts of Scientist C are vacant. Apart from these, out of the total sanctioned 92 posts of Assistant Environmental Engineer, 45 posts are vacant. Out of 40 posts of Scientist B category, 18 posts are vacant. Apart from these, 7 out of 7 posts of Senior Scientific Assistant, 17 out of 25 posts of Junior Environmental Assistant, 2 out of 10 posts of Junior Scientific Assistant are vacant.
In April this year, due to 6,092 vacancies lying vacant in statutory pollution control boards in various states, the Supreme Court has directed Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh (which have the highest number of vacancies) to take immediate steps to fill the vacant posts. A division bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuiyan said in its order dated April 22, “We direct the above four states to immediately file an affidavit and respond about the number of vacant posts as per today’s situation and the steps taken to fill the vacant posts.”
While fixing the next hearing of the case for July 10, the bench had said that the state of Punjab is also directed by its Advocate General to do the same. Only 5,877 persons were working against the sanctioned 11,969 posts in various statutory pollution control boards and pollution control committees; the remaining 6,092 posts were vacant. In Haryana, nearly 65% of the posts in the State Pollution Control Board remained vacant as only 165 persons were working against the sanctioned 450 posts. The remaining 285 posts were vacant. In Delhi, the vacancy rate was 68% as 233 out of a total of 344 posts were vacant while only 111 persons were working in the state pollution control body. Similarly, nearly 60% of the posts in the State Pollution Control Board in Rajasthan were vacant. Only 332 persons were working against the sanctioned number of 808 posts while the remaining 476 posts were vacant. In Uttar Pradesh, less than 45% of the vacancies were in the State Pollution Control Board as only 165 persons were working against the sanctioned number of 732 posts.
