Haryana Environment Protection Council

Haryana Environment Protection Council (or HEPC) is an advisory committee formed in 2006 to advise the Ministry of Environment, Govt. of Haryana on environment issues. It is headquartered at Chandigarh. The committee was scheduled to be reconstituted in year 2011.[1]

Haryana Environment Protection Council
हरियाणा पर्यावरण संरक्षण परिषद
Agency overview
Formed7 June 2006
JurisdictionGovernment of Haryana
HeadquartersChandigarh
Agency executive
  • Sh. Jagannath Pahadia
    Governor of Haryana, Chairman
Websiteharenvironment.gov.in

Background

The demand for formation of Environment Council was raised when Hon'ble Supreme Court of India repeatedly expressed concerns over the degradation of environment in Haryana. Taking note of this, The Governor of Haryana, Sh. Jagannath Pahadia formed the Haryana Environment Protection Council on 7 June 2006 in Chandigarh and took over as the Chairman of the committee.

Hierarchy

The Governor of Haryana is the official chairman of this committee. The Chief Minister of Haryana is the vice-chairman. The other official members are:

  • Finance Minister,
  • Irrigation Minister,
  • Education Minister,
  • Industries Minister,
  • Public Health Minister,
  • Environment Minister,
  • Minister of State for Forest,
  • Minister of State for Urban Development,

The Governor of Haryana has appointed 14 Non-official members of the committee:[2]

  • Dr. Shiv Shankar Bhardwaj
  • Subhash Chaudhary
  • Geeta Bhukal
  • Vidya Bhushan Sharma
  • Bhim Singh
  • Naresh Kamboj
  • Khurshid Ahmed
  • Krishan Nanha
  • Dalbir Singh Punia
  • Ranjit Singh Mann
  • Nirmal Dutt
  • Vivekta Singh
  • Hoshiari Lal Sharma
  • Sudarshan Dua

Functions

According to the Environment Ministry, HEPC works on three-point principle:

  • Review the work relating to environment undertaken in the state by government and non-government organisations.
  • Advise the state government of environmental issues of the state.
  • Identify areas requiring investigation, research and restoration in the field of environment.

Environmental issues
See also: Air pollution in India

Areas of Haryana surrounding Delhi NCR are most polluted. During smog of November 2017, Air quality index of Gurugram and Faridabad showed that the density of Fine particulates (2.5 PM diameter) was an average of 400 PM and monthly average of Haryana was 60 PM. Other sources of pollution are exhaust gases from old vehicles, stone crushers and brick kiln. Haryana has 75 lakh (7,500,000) old vehicles, of which 40% are old more polluting vehicles, besides 500,000 new vehicles are added every year. Other majorly polluted cities are Bhiwani, Bahadurgarh, Dharuhera, Hisar and Yamunanagar.[3]

Sahibi River tributary of Yamuna,[4][5][6] specially its canalised portion in Delhi called Najafgarh drain, remain highly polluted with industrial chemicals, human waste and agriculture runoff.[7][8][9][10]

Rejuvenation of Johads of Haryana, rivers and lakes of Haryana remains a big environmental issue.[11][12]

Achievements

On the advice of the council, the environment department has introduced three new schemes: Sewerage treatment plant in Haryana State, Ghaggar and Markanda Action Plan and setting-up of Environment Training Institute at Gurgaon in the 11th Five Year Plan (2007–12).The Finance and Planning Department gave its approval regarding the same and sanctioned a token amount during 2007–08.

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References
  1. http://www.haryana.ws/2011/04/state-enviroment-protection-councils.html
  2. "Environment Ministry Press Release" (PDF) (Press release). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 April 2013. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  3. "From Punjab to Patna pollution spreads.", Dainik Jagran, 12 November 2017.
  4. Cultural Contours of India: Dr. Satya Prakash Felicitation Volume, Vijai Shankar Śrivastava, 1981. ISBN 0391023586
  5. Books: Page 41, 42, 43, 44, 47 (b) Sahibi Nadi (River), River Pollution, By A.k.jain
  6. Minerals and Metals in Ancient India: Archaeological evidence, Arun Kumar Biswas, Sulekha Biswas, University of Michigan. 1996. ISBN 812460049X.
  7. Blot across the Capital: Najafgarh most polluted, Sunday, 10 July 2005,The Indian Express
  8. Environment Minister raises a stink over Najafgarh jheel, 22 February 2005, The Indian Express
  9. Najafgarh drain 11th among highly polluted industrial clusters, 25 Dec 2009, The Times of India
  10. drain causes less pollution in Yamuna now, 4 July 2006, The Indian Express
  11. "Haryana to develop 50-60 small lakes, water bodies in NCR: Manohar Lal Khattar", Indian Express, 1 November 2017.
  12. "Haryana to constitute pond management authority ", Business Standard, 1 November 2017.
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