NGT bench turning into saviour of environment in TN

Chennai, Sep 12 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Southern Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) is turning into a major saviour and a watchdog for the protection of the environment in Tamil Nadu.

The tribunal has recently constituted a panel comprising of scientists and environmentalists which recommended a penalty of Rs 48 lakh on three village panchayats -- Muttukadu, Navalur and Padur in Chengalpattu district -- as they failed to comply with the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016.

The Supreme Court and the Principal Bench of the NGT at New Delhi had set March 2020 as the deadline for all local bodies to comply with Solid Waste Management (SWM) rules.

The NGT committee decided to impose an interim fine of Rs 1 lakh per month from April 2020 till August 2021 on each of these panchayats.

Water samples collected from the backwaters in these panchayats found the presence of coliform bacteria which clearly indicated that untreated sewage and leachate from the solid waste was dumped along the banks.

Mahesh Vasudevan, an officer with a public sector bank and an avid environmentalist, told IANS: "The Southern Bench of the NGT is intervening in issues that have a footprint in the lives of the common man and bringing results. This is important."

The Southern Bench had in June 2021 called upon the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and the Tirunelveli corporation to give an immediate report on the Thamirabarani river pollution. The NGT had then slammed the state government, TNPCB and Tirunelveli corporation that despite several intimations from the tribunal the report had not come. The officials replied with the action taken reports on the temporary measures taken by them but the bench came out strongly and said that the work being done to clear the river of pollution was not satisfactory.

After the intervention of the NGT bench, the TNSPCB took measures to protect the Thamirabarani river from pollution. The TNPCB in a report submitted to the NGT on September 8, 2021 said that the board has directed the district administrator to put warning signboards on the banks of the river and to monitor any sewage or waste being deposited in the river. It also stated in its report that no illegal sand mining was taking place on the banks of Thamirabarani river.

In another case of NGT intervention, the Southern Bench comprising of Justice K. Ramakrishnan and expert member, K. Satyagopal has issued notice to the Government of Tamil Nadu for its failure to formulate a state action plan for air pollution control and implement it in 2020 as envisaged in the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP). The NCAP is a national level strategy launched by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in 2019 that emphasizes comprehensive mitigation strategies and an effective ambient air quality monitoring network.

R. Periyaswamy of the Institute for Environmental Studies, Coimbatore, an NGO doing research and intervention on degradation of environment, told IANS: "There has to be a watchdog which monitors and gives strict warnings to those in power. Here in the case of unabated pollution in the rivers and water bodies of the state as well as the failure of the government to monitor air quality, the NGT has acted as a watchdog. The timely intervention of the Southern Bench of the NGT has given results from the environment agencies of the state government which was unexpected. This shows that if someone is behind the government with a whip, results will come and for this, the NGT has to be given full credit."

Source: IANS