Industry should return subsidies provided by Central, state govts for pollution control: Environmental body

Acting on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed jointly by the top Gujarat-based environmental body, Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti (PSS), and the Farmers’ Action Group (FAG), the Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the chief secretaries of 19 Indian states, including Gujarat, seeking response on the demand by the petitioners to implement the prescribed pollution control norms, even as ensuring implementation of the “polluter pays” principle in its real spirit, instead of providing huge subsidies in the name of controlling pollution.

Talking with newspersons, PSS’s Rohit Prajapati said, “The polluter pays principle is being violated at every step. The Common Effluent Treatment e (CETPs), made to treat pollution unleashed by industry, is being highly subsidized. If earlier, 25 per cent of the CETP’s cost was borne by the Centre, another 25 per cent by the state, 25 per cent was soft loan, and only 25 per cent was industrial investment, today the Centre’s contribution is 50 per cent, with the combined contribution of soft loan and industry’s coming down to 25 per cent. We want all subsidy provided by Central and state governments for controlling industrial pollution to be returned, as it was precious public money which industry should pay for. It should pay back with retrospective effect.”
The notice was issued on December 9, 2013 by the Forest Bench of the Supreme Court of India, consisting of Justices A. K. Patnaik, Surinder Singh Nijjar and Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla, and the PSS and the FAG were represented by well-known human rights lawyer Collin Gonsalves. The PIL was filed under Article 32 of the Indian Constitution under which the individuals may seek redressal for the violation of their fundamental rights. “The PIL expresses concern over the massive pollution of India’s water bodies”, Prajapati said.
Prajapati asserted, “It demands respondents to ensure that no effluents having pollutants in excess of the prescribed norms flow into any water body (including groundwater) or seep into the soil, and to ensure that no industry is permitted to function unless it has an effluent treatment plant that meets prescribed norms.”
He pointed out, “Our PIL is also concerned with massive pollution in the air and on the land in 43 of India’s most critically polluted clusters and 32 severally polluted clusters. The facts as they unfold reveal a very grim situation of massive pollution of India’s water and an irreversible situation has emerged threatening the health of India’s rivers, groundwater and the lives of millions of people.”
Informing that in 2009 Ankleshwar’s industrial area had a Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI) of 88.50, topping the list of critically-polluted areas of India, Prajapati said, “In 2011 and 2013, Vapi industrial area, with CEPI of 85.31, topped this list.” Suggesting that CEPI itself is not comprehensive enough, as it fails to take into account impact on health of workers working in polluting industries and on agriculture, he emphasizes, “A better norm should be fixed to ascertain CEPI.”
Be that as it may, he added, “While pollution itself is deeply worrying, more worrying is that industrialists show no or little concern whatsoever despite the enormity of the crime they commit and the Central and State governments, apart from writing letters from time to time, show no inclination to even take the first step to reverse this trend to restore the health of India’s rivers, water bodies and groundwater.”
Prajapati said, the PIL contained following demands:

A writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction, to the Union Government of India, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Central Pollution Control Board and the chief secretary of Gujarat State and other 18 states to ensure that no industry is permitted to function after January 1, 2013 unless it has an effluent treatment plant that is able to meet prescribed norms and take such measures to ensure that its effluents and air pollution are within the norms prescribed by the Central Pollution Control Board/State Pollution Control Boards.
An order to ensure that under no circumstances should any effluent which has pollutants in excess of the norms prescribed, be allowed to flow into any water body in the country or seep into the soil.
An order that no effluent treatment plants / common effluent treatment plant is permitted, under any circumstance, to discharge effluents with pollution in excess of the prescribed norms onto the land or into any water body.
An order to desist from subsidizing the costs of effluent treatment plants.
An order asking independent and reputed agencies, including academic institutions, to conduct studies, in the first instance, in the 43 critically polluted and 32 severely polluted clusters of India as set out above, of the effect on the people, livelihood and animals of the pollution in order to ascertain the polluters and the compensation that they ought to pay to those adversely affected.

Comments

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Whither Jeffrey Sachs-supported research project which 'created' Gujarat model of development for Modi?

Even as Donald Trump was swearing-in as US President, a friend forwarded to me a YouTube video in which veteran world renowned economist Prof Jeffrey Sachs participated and sought an answer as to why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was "afraid to fly" despite being invited to Donald Trump's swearing in ceremony. This took my memory to 2003, when I -- as representative of the Times of India -- had a short tet-a-tat along with a couple of other reporters with Sachs in the chief minister's office in Gandhinagar.

Busy taking books to the needy, this rationalist exposes miracles in a superstition-infested Gujarat society

I knew his name as a campaigner against the sheer wastage of the large amounts of ghee brought by devotees from across India for a major religious ceremony conducted every year in Rupal village, near Gandhinagar, the Gujarat capital, on the ninth day of Navratri. I had seen him at several places during my visits to different NGO meetings as well as some media conferences.

No to free thought? How Gujarat's private universities are cowing down their students

"Don't protest"—that's the message private universities across Gujarat seem to be conveying to their students. A senior professor told me that students at the university where he teaches are required to sign an undertaking promising not to engage in protests. "They simply sign the undertaking and hand it over to the university authorities," he said.

'Potentially lethal, carcinogenic': Global NGO questions India refusing to ban white asbestos

Associated with the Fight Inequality Alliance, a global movement that began in 2016 to "counter the concentration of power and wealth among a small elite", claiming to have members in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, the Philippines, and Denmark, the advocacy group Confront Power appears all set to intensify its campaign against India as "the world’s largest asbestos importer".

To be or not to be Sattvik: Different communities' differing notions of purity and fasting

This is a continuation of my last blog on Sattvik food. When talking about Sattvik, there is a tendency to overlook what it may mean to different sections of people around the world. First, let me redefine Sattvik: it means having a "serene, balanced, and harmonious mind or attitude." Derived from the Sanskrit word sattva, it variously means "pure, essence, nature, vital, energy, clean, conscious, strong, courage, true, honest, and wise." How do people achieve this so-called purity? Among Gujarati Hindus, especially those from the so-called upper castes who are vegetarians, one common way is fasting. On fasting days, such as agiyarash —the 11th day of the lunar cycle in the Vedic calendar—my close relatives fast but consume milk, fruit juices, mangoes, grapes, bananas, almonds, pistachios, and potato-based foods, including fried items. Another significant fasting period is adhik maas. During this time, many of my relatives "fast" by eating only a single me...

Sattvik Food Festival: Shouldn't one question notion of purity, cultural exclusion in food choices?

Recently, I visited the Sattvik Food Festival, an annual event in Ahmedabad organized by Anil Gupta, professor emeritus at the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A). I have known Prof. Gupta since 1993, when I sought an appointment to meet him a few months after joining The Times of India in Ahmedabad—one reason why I have always been interested in the activities he is involved in.

World Bank approved $800 for Amravati despite negative internal view, court, NGO objections: CFA

Despite over 170 representatives by civil society organisations, hailing from 17 countries, all of them written to the World Bank’s executive directors calling upon the top banker to defer its approval, even as seeking further detailed studies, the Bank’s board of directors has approved $800 million for the Amaravati Capital City project.

Shyam Benegal's Mathan a propaganda film that supported 'system'? No way

A few days ago, I watched Manthan, a Shyam Benegal movie released in 1976. If I remember correctly, the first time I saw this movie was with Safdar Hashmi, one of the rare young theater icons who was brutally murdered in January 1989. Back then, having completed an M.A. in English Literature from Delhi University in 1975, we would often move around together.

Search This Blog