Former Coal India chief Anil Kumar Jha appointed member of key green panel

KOLKATA: The government has appointed former chairman of Coal India, Anil Kumar Jha, as a member of a key panel that deals with violation of environment rules.
The Expert Appraisal Committee formed by the environment ministry appraises projects that are commissioned without obtaining prior environmental clearance and have been termed as cases of violation. The panel was earlier constituted in June 2017 for three years. Its tenure has now been extended till June 2021.

The role of the panel comprising members with expertise in different sectors is to appraise and make recommendations to the centre with respect to cases of environment rules violation.

Jha retired as of Coal India’s chairman in January 2020. He has three decades of experience in coal mining. During his tenure Coal India’s output surpassed 600 million tonnes in 2018-19.