CB Bureau The environment minister’s office, which is the flagbearer
of the eco-friendly norms and has been pulling up the environment code violators,
seems to have no clue if the buildings of central government offices in the
country are eco-friendly and follow the environment ministry’s guidelines.
In
June 2010, a right to information (RTI) activist, Lokesh Batra, wrote to
Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh seeking information about
guidelines for eco-friendly central government offices in the country. Quite to his surprise, the ministry wrote back to Batra saying that it, too, feels that
there should be some environment guidelines for government offices and, instead,
asked him to send a draft of proposed guidelines.
‘Firstly, it was strange that rather than
replying to my query, the ministry asked me to propose a draft on green
building code for government offices. I forwarded them a document of a
corporate house in the US involved with green issues that can be used in
this matter,’ Batra told IANS.
‘I filed an RTI in the environment
ministry in October 2010 regarding this. But the ministry did not reply to me
within the stipulated 30 days. I then approached the first appellate authority,
which is the secretary in the ministry, on Nov 16, but even after the stipulated 45 days,
there has been no reply,’ Batra informed.
‘It is strange that the environment
minister talks of taking all steps to protect the environment and there has
been nothing done to ensure eco-friendly government offices,’ he said.
His queries to the environment ministry
came after he filed an RTI application to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO)
last year seeking information on the issue.
His query sought to know if any
interventions had been made or planned by the PMO to make its offices
environment-friendly.
It also asked about steps like energy conservation,
including reduction in power and water consumption, working towards
e-governance to make its offices paperless and other environment-friendly
practices.
In response to the RTI application, Batra
received copies of eight office circulars issued in the PMO from June 27, 2000,
to April 21, 2010.
‘Four of these were basic ones related to switching off of
electrical equipment when not in office and the rest related to issues concerning
e-governance. These interventions are far from what is needed,’ he said.