Eco authority survives on extensions

Any farmer with a complaint that his land has been rendered ineffective due to effluent discharge from an industry anywhere in Tamil Nadu can petition the Loss of Ecology Authority, specifically set up to investigate and award compensation to farmers affected by industrial pollution. However, the authority itself has a major
grievance and does not know where to file its own petition.
Set up by the Union environment and forests ministry, the Loss of Ecology (Prevention & Payment of Compensation) Authority, an institution unique to Tamil Nadu and one that charges no fee on petitioners, has been surviving on a yearly basis without getting permanent status.
“While the world is celebrating New Year’s eve, the authority staff will be waiting every year until midnight for a fax from the Union environment ministry to know if the body will continue to exist for one more year,’’ says a senior officer.
“The fax comes late in the night. Once, we had packed our files and vacated the rented space and were waiting outside when the fax came,’’ recalls the officer. That explains the reason the authority had shifted its office half-a-dozen times in a decade. Usually, the extensions are for a year. Twice, the extensions have come for six months, and once it got a threemonth breather. With a retired high court judge as chairman and five members and a few key officers, mostly on deputation from other government departments, the authority, engaging staff on a contract basis, has no permanency to it.
The Vellore Citizens Forum has even filed a writ petition to make the Loss of Ecology Authority a permanent body for Tamil Nadu by appointing a managing committee, chairperson and members. “It is the farmers who have received compensation who are giving life to the authority by petitioning the green bench of the Madras High Court for extensions,’’ says an official.
From November 2009, the Loss of Ecology Authority will have to begin field inspections to investigate and award compensation for crop damage in Vellore district due to effluent discharge from tanneries for the decade 1999 to 2008 but the term of the authority comes to a close on December 31, 2009.
“Again, we will have an anxious wait for the fax,” says a staff member. The authority’s job is to compute the compensation under two heads, for reversing the ecology damage and for payment to individuals. It has covered pollution in three river basins of Palar, Noyyal and Amaravathy and till now has awarded a compensation of Rs 65.4 crore to farmers who own 75,000 hectares of land. Official sources expect that the authority could be made part of the proposed green tribunal by the Union environment ministry.