THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau is launching a drive against rampant exploitation of natural resources, including illegal quarrying, sand mining, water pollution, encroachments and illegal constructions.
Vigilance director Jacob Thomas has instructed all units of VACB to identify the massive erosion of natural resources and take appropriate action. To ensure that the VACB units act promptly, Mr Thomas has also insisted on monthly action-taken reports from each unit.
In a circular issued in this regard recently, Mr. Thomas listed out various channels of natural resource exploitation, laws to check exploitation of natural resources and the action to be taken by the enforcement agencies concerned.
According to the circular, obtaining pecuniary gains from exploiting natural resource has to be considered as organised crime. The VACB units have been directed to identity the corruption in quarrying, sand mining, river and water pollution, wet land and paddy land filling, encroachment into public land, construction in non-building zone and buffer zone and send notices to the officials concerned.
“Often such environment degrading actions are perpetrated through the abuse of power of some public servants in the departments responsible for enforcement in collusion with the private interests. Influential leaders of the community are often silenced through corruption,” said the circular.
The Vigilance director instructed that notices should be sent to all concerned enforcement agencies based on observations of the Vigilance.
“Dishonest, fraudulent, corrupt intention of the public servant and knowledge of the adverse impact on health and damage to the environment shall be established through sending notices,” said the circular.
