How green are government buildings? Environment ministry doesn’t know

NEW DELHI - India, at the forefront of the global war against climate change, does not have any guidelines to make government offices eco-friendly, reveals a Right to Information (RTI) query.

RTI activist Lokesh Batra wrote to Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh in June 2010 seeking information about guidelines for eco-friendly central government offices in the country.

The ministry wrote back to the retired naval officer in August saying the need for an eco-friendly environment in government offices had been felt by the ministry too. If Batra wanted, the ministry said, he could send in a draft of the proposed guidelines.

“Firstly, it was strange that rather than replying to my query, the ministry asked me to propose a draft on green building code for government offices. I forwarded them a document of a corporate house in the US involved with green issues that can be used for in this matter,” Batra told IANS.

The ministry has not got back to Batra since then despite his seeking information under the RTI Act about the status of his proposal on eco-friendly government offices.

“I filed an RTI in the environment ministry in October 2010 regarding this. But the ministry did not reply to me within the stipulated 30 days. I then approached the first appellate authority, which is the secretary in the ministry, on Nov 16 but even after stipulated 45 days, there has been no reply,” added the retired Indian Navy officer.

“It is strange that the environment minister talks of taking all steps to protect the environment and there has been nothing done to ensure eco-friendly government offices,” he said.

His queries to the environment ministry came after he filed an RTI application to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) last year seeking information on the issue.

His query sought to know if any interventions had been made or planned by the PMO to make its offices environment-friendly. It also asked about steps like energy conservation, including reduction in power and water consumption, working towards e-governance to make its offices paperless and other environment friendly practices.

In response to the RTI application, Batra received copies of eight office circulars issued in the PMO from June 27, 2000, to April 21, 2010.

“Four of these were basic ones related to switching off of electrical equipment when not in office and rest related to issues concerning e-governance. These interventions are far from what is needed,” he said.

With no response from the ministry, he is now planning to approach the second appellate authority, which is the Central Information Commission (CIC).

Ironically, India plays a major role in the global environment arena as it attempts to bridge the gap between developed and developing countries to fight climate change issues.

At the recently held UN climate change talks at Cancun, Minister Ramesh proposed that all countries, including developing ones like India, take binding commitments under appropriate legal forms to cut emissions.

If only the activism found echo in its own offices, rued some activists.

(Richa Sharma can be contacted at richa.s@ians.in)