Haryana Environment Protection Council (or HEPC) is an advisory committee formed in 2006 to advise the Ministry of Environment, Govt. of Haryana on environment issues. It is headquartered at Chandigarh

Chandigarh

Chandigarh is a union territory of India that serves as the capital of two states, Haryana and Punjab. The name Chandigarh translates as "The Fort of Chandi". The name is from an ancient temple called Chandi Mandir, devoted to the Hindu goddess Chandi, in the city...

. The committee is scheduled to be reconstituted in year 2011.

Background

The demand for formation of Environment Council was raised when Hon'ble Supreme Court of India repeatedly expressed concerns over the degradation of environment in Haryana. Taking note of this, The Governor of Haryana, Sh. Jagannath Pahadia formed the Haryana Environment Protection Council on 7 June 2006 in Chandigarh

Chandigarh

Chandigarh is a union territory of India that serves as the capital of two states, Haryana and Punjab. The name Chandigarh translates as "The Fort of Chandi". The name is from an ancient temple called Chandi Mandir, devoted to the Hindu goddess Chandi, in the city...

 and took over as the Chairman of the committee.

Hierarchy

The Governor of Haryana is the official Chairman of this Committee. The Chief Minister of Haryana is the vice-Chairman. The other official members are:
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• Finance Minister,
• Irrigation Minister,
• Education Minister,
• Industries Minister,
• Public Health Minister,
• Environment Minister,
• Minister of State for Forest,
• Minister of State for Urban Development,

The Governor of Haryana has appointed 14 Non-official members of the committee :
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• Dr. Shiv Shankar Bhardwaj
• Subhash Chaudhary
• Geeta Bhukal
• Vidya Bhushan Sharma
• Bhim Singh

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• Naresh Kamboj
• Khurshid Ahmed
• Krishan Nanha
• Dalbir Singh Punia
• Ranjit Singh Mann

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• Nirmal Dutt
• Vivekta Singh
• Hoshiari Lal Sharma
• Sudarshan Dua

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Functions

According to the Environment Ministry, HEPC works on three point principle

• Review the work relating to Environment undertaken in the State by Government and non-Government Organisations.
• Advice the State Government of Environment issues of the State.
• Identify areas requiring investigation, research and restoration in the field of environment.

Achievements

On the advise of council, the environment Department has introduced 3 new schemes i.e. Sewerage Treatment Plant in Haryana State, Ghaggar and Markanda Action Plan and Setting-up of Environment Training Institute at Gurgaon in the 11th Five Year Plan (2007–12).The Finance and Planning Department has given its approval regarding the same and sanctioned a token amount during the year 2007-08.