MP dissolves `stinking' pollution control board

MP dissolves `stinking' pollution control board
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

Bhopal, Mar 1: As if to dissociate itself from the doings of the tainted MP State Pollution Control Board Chairman V K Jain, the state government has dissolved the entire board itself.

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The notification superceding the board ``in public interest'' was issued on Tuesday after Chief Minister Digvijay Singh's clearance. It is supposed to end speculation about Jain's continuance as the Board's chairman after his arrest by the state Lokayukta's special police establishment last week.

It is also supposed to protect Digvijay Singh Government's eco-friendly image. Jain had become an embarrassment following the recovery of documents which show that he had amassed huge wealth by giving no-objection certificates to polluting industries, including distilleries in violation of the norms.

Ironically, Jain seems to have been using the pollution control board as ``a money-making machine'' since he became its chairman of the Board in 1997. The state government had extended his term only last November despite grave allegations against Jain and his coterie within the board.

In a way the government was left with no choice. For the Lokayukta's raids against Jain and the Board's member secretary G D Aggarwal, revealed that Jain had been using the board as a money-making machine but no action was taken against him due to his political connections.

While the case registered against Jain relates to amassing wealth ``disproportionate to his known sources of income'', the raids have yielded documents showing that Jain also acted as a middleman for his political masters.

One of the senior-most state officials to be arrested while in office, Jain also tops the list of officials against whom the Lokayukta has received the largest complaints.

A retired Engineer-in-Chief of the Public Health Engineering Department, Jain was made chairman of the Board in 1997 at the instance of a senior Congress leader whose advice Digvijay Singh could not ignore. Jain soon established direct links with the CM and was reappointed last year.