NEW DELHI: Congress on Wednesday termed the ministry of environment as “Pravachan mantralay (ministry of sermons)” after the Centre removed four officials from environment minister Bhupender Yadav’s office.In a post on X, Congress member of Rajya Sabha and former environment minister Jairam Ramesh took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and claimed that all key appointments in the personal staff of Union ministers are vetted by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).“During the Modi regime, all key appointments in the personal staff of ministers are vetted by the PMO,” the Congress leader said.“Now four close aides of the Union minister of environment, forests and climate change have been sacked in two batches over two successive days. One of the aides is widely considered the closest of close confidants of the minister concerned,” he added.Jairam Ramesh also alleged that the Environment Ministry has, in recent years, done little to protect the environment and forests.“Clearly there has been a collapse of governance in this important ministry, which has, in recent years, done little to protect the environment and forests and to deal with the implications of climate change,” the Congress leader said.“Meanwhile, ecological destruction across the country continues unabated — including in Great Nicobar, the dense forest areas of central and east India, the Aravalli Range, and other biodiversity-rich ecosystems. Air pollution continues to extract a heavy toll on public health, and standards that need to be updated and enforced simply are not. The list is endless. But does the Modi regime even care? The Paryavaran Mantralay has become a Pravachan Mantralay,” he added.The remarks came after four officials from Bhupender Yadav’s office were removed through four separate orders issued on July 3. The ministry has not given any specific reason for their abrupt removal.The officials include Yadav’s private secretary, assistant private secretary and two additional private secretaries.Yadav’s private secretary, Amar Singh, a 2010-batch IRS officer, was removed on “administrative grounds”. The appointments of assistant private secretary Siddharth Yadav and additional private secretary Ayush Saran, both political appointees, were terminated with immediate effect. The other additional private secretary, Shailesh Kumar Singh, a Central Secretariat Service official, was “prematurely repatriated” to his parent cadre, the Department of Personnel and Training.Reacting to the development earlier, Jairam Ramesh also raised suspicions of a scam.“The news of the sackings of four members of the staff of the Union Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change is shocking. It is no secret how such appointments are made in the first place during the Modi regime. Can there be so much smoke without any fire? Could this be an instance of the Pradhan Mantri Chanda Do Dhandha Lo scheme having gone awry?” he wrote on X.