Ranchi, Jan. 13: The Union ministry of forests and environment’s plan to turn Deoghar into a “model eco-city” has failed to take off due to the alleged lackadaisical approach of the district administration.

Sources said the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) had on June 27 last year asked the district authorities to formulate a detailed project report on Deoghar and present the same to the CPCB workshop for approval by the ministry.

Sources said even after the deadline, the CPCB send several reminders to the district authorities. But the Deoghar deputy commissioner failed to respond to the CPCB reminders, sources added.

Deoghar deputy commissioner Shailendra Singh could not be contacted for comment.

The board had sought detailed report from the administrations of 10 cities in different states to execute the ministry’s eco-city scheme after shortlisting them on the basis of their eco-plan.

According to sources in the JPCB, the Union ministry had selected Deoghar in the first phase to develop it as one of the model eco-cities in the country. The other cities are Mathura (UP), Ujjain (MP), Rishikesh (Uttaranchal), Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh), Puri (Orissa), Vapi (Gujarat), Thanjore (Tamil Nadu), Bharatpur (Rajasthan) and Shillong (Meghalaya).

The CPCB had asked the state board to coordinate with the district authorities in preparing the report and give suggestions on pollution control measures.

The eco-project, for which the Centre had earmarked Rs 4.50 crore for each city, envisaged implementing the scheme in cities with zero pollution level.

Sources said that the deputy commissioner of Deoghar was made the nodal officer of the project and the JPCB was asked to coordinate with the district authorities to take pollution control measures.

JPCB member secretary S.K. Narnoli said: “The Union ministry wrote a letter in this regard to the Deoghar district authorities by forwarding a copy of the same to the pollution board. Since the deputy commissioner was made the nodal officer, he had to take initiatives and we were only supposed to coordinate with him. But he seems reluctant about this project.”

“I have written several reminders during the past seven months. But the district authorities have not bothered to acknowledge even one,” Narnoli said. The CPCB letter said: “The objective of the eco-city project is to bring in visible results through implementation of environment projects in the selected towns.”“After bifurcation, Deoghar is the only city in Jharkhand which records a large number of foreign visitors every year,” sources added.