October 10, 2012. The Environmental Safety & Management Public Council has been set up under Sverdlovsk Region Government recently, the government’s Press Service Administration reports.

‘Sverdlovsk Region Government pays a lot of attention to environmental safety and management in order to enhance the efficiency of the managerial decisions it makes. Under the government’s decree, the Public Council was set up for the purpose,’ says the region’s Natural Resources & Ecological Issues Minister Konstantin Kryuchkov.

He pointed out that the Ecological Issues & Environmental Management Committee under Sverdlovsk Region Government used to look into the problems of environmental protection before, while the new body is totally different in that it comprises some representatives of the public as its members.

‘The Public Council operates under the principle of the local residents joining it voluntarily. A half of the Council consists of candidates proposed by Sverdlovsk Region Legislative Assembly, while the other half comprises professional experts who are not members of the assembly,’ Kryuchkov explained.

The council comprises 26 people at the moment, including head of Sverdlovsk Region division of the All-Russian NGO Environmental Policies & Culture Center Lyudmila Vassilyeva, deputy head of Sverdlovsk Region division of the Federal Service for Supervision in the Use of Natural Resources Ilya Vlasov, and Chairman of the region’s Public Chamber Stanislav Naboichenko.