Axe Falls On SEIAA In-Charge Officer In Environmental Clearance Scam

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The first axe has fallen on an official in the environmental clearance scam. The Environmental Planning and Coordination and Organisation (EPCO) removed the in-charge officer of the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), Alok Nayak.

In place of Nayak, Manohar Patel has been made in-charge of SEIAA. Chief scientific officer of EPCO Nayak was holding the charge of SEIAA and was also responsible for giving clearance for 450 projects without holding a meeting of the Authority.

At a meeting, Chief Secretary Anurag Jain recently pulled up the officials for giving environmental clearance without holding a single meeting.  

Chairman of SEIAA, SN Singh Chouhan, said the deemed permission had been wrongly used. According to sources, executive director of EPCO and member secretary of SEIAA Uma Maheshwari will also be removed. A transfer list of IAS officers indicates Maheshwari’s removal from her present position.

Sources further said the government was mulling over regularising the deemed permission clause of the SEIAA. Initially, the deemed permission will be withdrawn, and then the cases will be put up before the meeting of the SEIAA. Sources further said the SEIAA chairman had put up these issues before the CS.

The central government came to know about irregularities committed in the environmental clearance. The Government of India may act against the officials concerned, sources said.