An evaluation study on functioning of State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) has pointed out that the Andhra Pradesh board had only one technical person to monitor 100 units, the Goa board had less than two while the boards of West Bengal, Haryana and Punjab had less than three persons to perform the same task. The study carried out by the programme evaluation organisation of the Planning Commission observed that for the first category of SPCBs made up of 24 states, the average number of technical persons per 100 polluting units was 3.8. While for 11 of these state boards the ratio was less than five, state boards in Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and Bihar had more than 10 scientific and engineering personnel per 100 red and orange units.

The absence of any laid down norms by the centre for determining the staffing pattern of the state boards with respect to coverage of polluting units was the primary reason behind the under staffing, the study pointed out.