(IN): Green tribunal flouts every rule in the book

June 22, 2009

The Times of India, Ahmedabad Monday, June 22,2009

GOING AGAINST NATURE

Green tribunal flouts every rule in the book

Nitin Sethi | TNN

New Delhi: The murky goings-on in the National Environment Appellate

Authority (NEAA), the only judicial body in the country allowed to hear a

grievance against environmental clearances given to projects by the

environment ministry, have emerged as replies to RTIs. Created by a special

Act of Parliament, the authority has the dubious record of dismissing all

but one petition that have come before it in the last 12 years.

Here is how members to the judicial body were last selected. The

five-member appellate was to have one chairperson — a retired Supreme Court

judge — and one vicechairperson. But since 2005, the government has not been

able to find anyone to fill these positions.

NEAA is also supposed to have three technical members. When asked in an

RTI by The Access Initiative, a group working on transparency in environment

sector, how the current members were selected in 2006, the environment

ministry has admitted it didn’t even advertise for the position and had no

fixed selection process for the appointments.

In fact, when I V Manivannan, a retired IAS officer from Tamil Nadu, sent

his application, it was simply accepted by the ministry. In 2006, DMK’s A

Raja was the minister. The serving DG (forests) and special secretary J C

Kala recommended a retired Forest Service officer; he too was selected

without any process. Then Kala, having retired suggested his own name for

vicechairmanship and was hired as member instead. All the three officers

back in a government agency now enjoy the perks and pay of an additional

secretary in the Union government.

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