JNU professor accused of sexual harassment Atul Johri removed from pollution control body; Centre cites misconduct

New Delhi: The Centre has removed a professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) accused of sexual harassment from the Supreme Court-empowered Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA), which is tasked with taking various measures to tackle air pollution. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change announced the removal of Atul Kumar Johri from the EPCA, a professor at JNU’s School of Life Sciences, in an order issued on 4 July. [caption id=“attachment_4353179” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of the JNU campus.[/caption] Johri was arrested in March for allegedly sexually harassing several female students . He is currently out on bail. The Delhi High Court had recently given JNU’s internal complaints committee two more weeks to complete its investigation into Johri’s alleged misconduct. Despite repeated attempts, Johri did not respond to queries from PTI regarding his removal from the EPCA. Students, professors and women’s rights organisations had demanded Johri’s arrest, following allegations by some students that he had sexually harassed them. In its notification, the environment ministry said it had removed another member, professor Mukesh Khare of IIT-Delhi’s Department of Civil Engineering, from the EPCA. Khare claimed, “I had resigned six months back from the committee due to personal reasons. My resignation has also been accepted.” Confirming the development, a top environment ministry official said Johri was removed as he had allegations of misconduct on him. “We are looking for replacements (in the EPCA),” the official added. Sources in the ministry said they had reports that many of the members were also not attending the meetings of the panel regularly. Another member of the EPCA confirmed the removal of both professors and asserted that there were no contribution from some of the members. “There is a lack of interest from them,” the member said. The environment ministry has also extended the tenure of the EPCA to 3 October, after its two-year term expires on 4 July this year. The EPCA is headed by Bhure Lal and includes environmentalist and Centre for Science and Environment Director General Sunita Narain as one of its members. The EPCA is also mandated to enforce the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in Delhi as per the pollution levels. The GRAP action plan has five categories to tackle pollution — severe plus or emergency, severe, very poor, moderate to poor, and moderate. In November, the EPCA had enforced several measures, including closure of the Badarpur thermal power plant, ban on brick kilns, hot mix plants, stone crushers, and construction activities.