KPCB's 'valiant' act

sub: text of the letter sent to Indian Express:

I refer to the news report captioned 'IT major given closure notice' in your columns on the 17th instant.

Now, I can't think of any major pollution threat an IT company, however big, poses to the environment. The only waste involved is the waste from toilet usage by employees during working hours, which anyway is far lesser than that for even a residential complex of comparable size. And, it is inconceivable that a company like Honeywell could not have taken care of meeting the connected basic requirements. As such, if at all there was any non-compliance, as alleged, it may have been technical, at worst. For which, wielding the stick is very much like the DCF, Urban, Sri Annaiah, doing the same to People for Animals hospital in Kengeri recently. Or, more likely, the result of the person concerned refusing to pay the 'mamools' demanded by the officials.

This is essentially what the Pollution Control Board has reduced itself to, even as rampant violations of all kinds go on unchecked all around. The same goes for the Electrical Inspectorate, and many other such agencies.

A rare exception, in my experience, surprisingly used to be the Dept of Industries & Commerce, Govt of Karnataka, overseeing compliance by industries under the 'Boilers and Pressure Vessels Act'. Here the inspection and certification used to be entrusted to accredited 'chartered engineers', who did a fairly professional job for a prescribed fee. Being an onerous responsibility, since they could be held accountable in case of accidents, they generally went about their task in a no-nonsense manner. Perhaps, that is the model to be followed by the other government departments/ agencies.