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The National Green Tribunal (NGT), September 11, 2024, reprimanded the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) for submitting a report without verifying the actual status of plastic waste in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
The response filed by the UPPCB on September 10, 2024 was mechanical and lacked any effort to determine the accurate figures regarding the generation and processing of plastic waste in the city, the NGT stated. Submitting the reply, the UPPCB should have conducted thorough groundwork and verified the correct data, it emphasised.
“The reply is based on information provided by the environmental engineer of Nagar Nigam (Municipal Corporation), Lucknow, which indicated that the total waste generated in the city is approximately 99 tonnes per day. However, the reply does not show that the UPPCB made any attempt to crosscheck this information, nor does it clarify how Nagar Nigam, Lucknow assessed the quantity of waste generated in the city,” the NGT noted.
Based on the information from Nagar Nigam, the UPPCB claimed that out of 99 tonnes per day, 86 tonnes were processed. The report also mentioned that a penalty of Rs 15.26 lakh had been imposed on defaulters and recovered.
The UPPCB requested three weeks to file a fresh report. The tribunal also directed the Municipal Corporation to file its response at least one week before the next hearing, scheduled for December 12, 2024.
The application, which was registered suo motu, examined the issue of nearly 300 metric tonnes (MT) of plastic waste being generated daily in Lucknow, as reported in an article in the newspaper Hindustan Times on April 22, 2024. The news report highlighted a fivefold increase in plastic waste, from 59 MT in 2015 to 300 MT in 2024.
In a hearing on September 11, 2024, the NGT ordered the chief secretary, Punjab to file a compliance report detailing the demarcated floodplain zone of the Sutlej river in a 47-kilometre stretch of Ferozpur and Tarn Taran districts by the first week of January 2025. The next hearing is scheduled for January 15, 2025.
The chief engineer of mining pperations in Punjab informed the court that the demarcation of the floodplain zone in the specified stretch would be completed by December 31, 2024.
An application, filed on April 17, 2023, sought directions for the demarcation of the floodplain zone, which is necessary to preserve the river’s ecology. It was also stated that widespread encroachments had occurred, as reported in the media.
The NGT, September 11, 2024 directed a four-member committee to investigate complaints regarding stone crushers operating within the prohibited limits of the forest area in Doiwala village, Yamuna Nagar district, Haryana.
The committee, consisting of representatives from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the district forest office in Yamuna Nagar, the Haryana State Pollution Control Board and the district magistrate of Yamuna Nagar, was tasked with visiting the site.
The committee was told to determine the number of stone crushers operating in the district and whether they adhered to siting criteria and environmental norms and submit a report accordingly.