Former chief secretary of Delhi MM Kutty was on Thursday appointed chairperson of the Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas, according to a Personnel Ministry order. Besides him, Professor Mukesh Khare, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi and Ramesh KJ, Ex-Director General, India Meteorological Department (IMD) have been appointed as the full-time technical members of the Commission, it said.
Arvind Kumar Nautiyal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change will be the full-time member of the panel, the order said. They have been appointed for a term of three years w.e.f. the date of assumption of charge of the post, or until attainment of the age of 70 years, it said.
Faced with rising air pollution in Delhi-NCR, the Centre had on October 29 introduced a new law through the Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Ordinance 2020, that puts in place a powerful oversight body and provides for up to five years of jail term and Rs one crore fine for violators with immediate effect.
The commission shall have the power to lay down parameters of air quality, parameters of discharge of environmental pollutants, to inspect premises violating the law, ordering closure of non-abiding industries/plants etc., according to the ordinance.
The adjoining areas where the ordinance shall be in force include Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, adjoining areas of the NCR and Delhi where any source of pollution is located and is causing adverse impact on air quality in the national capital region.
Kutty, a 1985 batch IAS officer of Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram-Union Territories or AGMUT cadre, retired as Petroleum Secretary in April this year. He has also served as the Chief Secretary of Delhi.
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