PCBs wink at industrial approvals

A host of issues including staff crunch dog PCBs in two Telugu States, severely affecting clearance of approvals

Hyderabad: Both the Telugu States may be talking high of industrial growth in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, but the reality seems to be tad dismal. Many industrial tycoons are waiting for approval from Pollution Control Boards of both the States due to certain issues that dog the issuing authorities.
According to official sources, shortage of trained staff is posing a problem for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh State Pollution Control Boards in clearing online approvals to prospective industrialists.

The Telangana Pollution Control Board (TSPCB) has to give online approvals through the Telangana State Industrial Project Approval and Select Certification System (TS IPASS). A similar version of online software is used by the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (AP PCB) too to give approvals online.

According to TSPCB officials, the board has to give various kinds of licensees and clearance certificates needed to set up new industries in the State. After the formation of Telangana State, the government wanted to speed up the process of issue of approval to the prospective industrialists evincing interest to start their operations in Telangana.

For this, the State government had launched TS IPASS. It was through online only that the much needed approvals have to be given by various departments.

But, in case of TS PCB, it was lack of staff that has made the board unable to clear the applications coming online by way of TS IPASS. “The hurdle in clearing the pending approvals,” sources told ‘The Hans India, “is that there are about 72 posts lying vacant, which needed to be filled up through the Public Services Commission.”

The posts remain unfilled at regional, zonal, administration as well as scientific wing at the main office. On top of it, there is a separate cess administration wing that also has to deal with issues related to technical scrutiny of water consumption, assessment of water cess and matters related to Cess Appellate Authority (CAA). All these day-to-day functions of the board have gone awry due to lack of sufficient number of staff, said a senior official of the TS PCB. However, the State Finance Department has recently cleared a file to appoint about 72 posts, out of these 26 of environmental engineers, 21 analysts, assistant technicians and other administrative staff. “We hope that the TS PSC is soon going to fill up these posts, so that the board could function effectively,” a senior official hoped.

In case of Andhra Pradesh, only officials of AP PCB have so far got training on the usage of the online software. But, the lower-rung staff is yet to be trained. “It was due to this, the lower-rung staff is not able to escalate the files online to the higher ups for clearance,” said an AP PCB official. Though both State governments want fast paced approvals, the present situation at PCBs of both the States need some more time for speedy clearance of approvals online, according to sources.

BY Sindhura Dharmasanam