Former IPCC chief RK Pachauri may lose full control of Teri

R K Pachauri will lose ‘operational control’ over The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) as soon as Director General of Bureau of Energy Efficiency Ajay Mathur takes over as its new director-general, the think tank’s governing council has decided.

Updated on: Jan 26, 2016, 02:01:14 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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R K Pachauri will lose ‘operational control’ over The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) as soon as director general of Bureau of Energy Efficiency Ajay Mathur takes over as its new director-general, the think tank’s governing council has decided.

RK Pachauri resigned as the chairperson of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) following accusation of sexual harassment. (HT File Photo)

Mathur is expected to join TERI next week.

Sources said TERI’s governing council has accepted Mathur’s condition for joining that he should have full operational control over the institute with no interference from Pachauri in day to day functioning.

This was apparently a reason for the delay in Mathur joining the institute as its director general replacing Pachauri, who has been heading the institute for more than two decades.

Mathur was appointed as the DG in June 2015 after a woman researcher had accused Pachauri of sexual harassment, a charge former co-chair of intergovernmental body on climate change had denied. The researcher subsequently resigned accusing the top bosses in the institute of harassing her, a charge denied by TERI.

Read | Teri researcher says he was told to help hush Pachauri case

Initially, the technocrat was expected to join TERI in three months but the government asked him to continue till the Paris climate conference, where he was designated as the government’s chief spokesperson.

In an email to Hindustan Times in December 2015, Teri announced that Mathur will join the institute on January 5, 2016. That did not happen as the institute failed to provide clarity on what would be Pachauri’s role once Mathur joins.

This was a key condition put forth by Mathur for joining as Pachauri’s contract did not have termination clause meaning that he would continue to be part of Teri till his contract expired. “Dr Mathur will not like any interference in day to day running of the institute,” a Teri functionary said.

Sources said the governing council has now decided to re-designate Pachauri as executive vice-chairman having no role in the daily functioning of the institute. A source said the former DG will now provide “guidance” to the institute set up in 1974 for its long term goals. Pachauri had joined in 1092 as its director. Teri did not respond to email about new role of Pachauri.

Mathur is slated to join the environment and energy think tank once the government issues a formal order accepting his resignation. Sources said his resignation has been forwarded to the Prime Minister’s Office for acceptance.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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