ENVIRONMENT 2 LAST(MES2)

"The Government of India enacted the Environment "The Government of India enacted the Environment(Protection) Act in 1986 with the objective of providingprotection and improvement of the environment. But, no states,including Kerala, have implemented it effectively so far,despite instructions by Supreme Court in the MC Mehta case,"Thomas said. Even though corruption manifests in several forms, atseveral levels and at several degrees and impact, it turnsinto an organized crime when it comes to obtaining pecuniarygains from exploiting natural resources, the official said. "Often environment degrading actions are perpetratedthrough abuse of power by some public servants in thedepartments concerned in collusion with the private interestsdisregarding the natural resources," Thomas said. He said corruption-linked-environmental value erodingactivities thriving in the state include licensing ofpollution testing centres that do not check effectively airpollution from vehicles, registering of lower standardvehicles, insufficient water sample testing, use offorest/leased land for non-agricultural or non-forestrypurpose and encroachment of land for constructing buildings. Unscientific felling of trees, quarrying and mining, sandmining in ports, and rivers, unpermitted filling of lands,paddy or wetlands and cutting of mangroves also fall in thiscategory, he added. Under ERV initiative, he said "Notices will be sent toall the department heads at district level or nodal officer orthe competent authority of each of the categories of naturalresources or environmental risks producing activities, basedon vigilance intelligence observations." The agency recently launched a major initiative in theenvironment sector—the verification of the illegal quarryingat Mukkunnimala near here. VACB is proposing to developpartnership with various stakeholders in their mission. The VACB director visited the quarry site at Mukkunnimalaearlier this week, conducted an inspection and decided tocarry out a survey before September 18 to take stock of theillegal encroachments by the quarry lobby.PTI LGK BNDVMVV