Clean up pollution control board

KSPCB is polluted by suspicious appointments, irregularities, and failure to do its job

The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has been in the news for all the wrong reasons for over a year, right from the controversy over the appointment of its Chairman, Shanth Thimmaiah, to an alleged financial fraud now. Following a complaint by MLC P R Ramesh, the government has appointed a senior officer to inquire into a ‘Rs 17-crore scam’. According to the legislator, documents showed that KSPCB approved the procurement of services worth Rs 17 crore from private agencies without calling for competitive bids that are required as per the law. This was approved by a ‘single source committee’ headed by Thimmaiah in February, toward the fag end of the BJP government, in violation of the Karnataka Transparency in Procurement Act, under which it is mandatory to invite tenders. The purpose of the Act is to bring in transparency and check corruption in government procurement of goods and services. The first to raise the red flag was Suri Payala, the member-secretary of the board, who wrote to the government about the large-scale irregularities in KSPCB, including work being allotted without calling for tenders. The last few months had witnessed a power struggle within the board, with Thimmaiah accusing Payala of repeatedly issuing office memorandums in a whimsical manner without the approval of the ‘competent authority’. Payala was subsequently ousted from the post. Curiously, Payala, an IT manager with KSPCB, was earlier appointed member-secretary by Thimmaiah himself, ignoring complaints that he did not have the required qualifications to hold the post. The two fell apart somewhere down the line.

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In fact, the appointment of Thimmaiah himself, in November 2021, had stirred up a controversy, with environmentalists raising an issue of conflict of interest. Thimmaiah was earlier the managing director of a company involved in preparing detailed project reports for government projects and issuing environmental clearances. Worse, the same year, a previous chairman of the board had alleged that the then government had ‘accepted’ his resignation after fraudulently obtaining his signature. Over the years, the board has also been repeatedly pulled up by the National Green Tribunal and various courts for failing to do its job in a number of matters.

The KSPCB has thus come to be known more for its own internal controversies than for playing a proactive role in protecting the environment of the state. The government should not only order an audit into the working of the board and its finances but also ensure that only qualified persons with impeccable integrity are appointed to all positions in it. A body which is charged with ensuring a pollution-free atmosphere is itself polluted to the core, and it is high time the government undertook a massive clean-up of it.