New Delhi: Congress leader and former environment minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday said the sad reality is that for the past decade, environmental regulation in its different dimensions has been seen as a cost-imposing burden and not as a societal obligation to be taken on.
He also alleged that laws have been diluted and the enforcement machinery has been weakened.
Ramesh shared on X an opinion piece in The Hindu by Soumya Swaminathan, Kalpana Balakrishnan and Vijay Shankar Balakrishnan stressing the need for the country to have an environmental health regulatory agency.
"Here is a very thought-provoking and timely piece, by a trio that includes two top scientists, on the need for an environmental health regulatory agency in India," he said on X.
"But the sad reality is that for the past decade environmental regulation in its different dimensions has been seen as a cost-imposing burden - and not as a societal obligation to be taken on. Laws have been diluted. The enforcement machinery has been weakened," Ramesh said.
The global 'talk' is one thing but it is the domestic 'walk' that matters more and is of grave concern, the Congress leader said.
The immediate task is to expand vastly the community of environmental health researchers and professionals in the country, he said.
"This group may not exceed a few hundred at most now. Some years ago, I helped set up a Center of Environmental Health at the Public Health Foundation of India. Such initiatives must multiply in different parts of the country with vastly expanded philanthropic support preferably," Ramesh said.
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