Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in the Supreme Court, the high courts and the National Green Tribunal
The chief secretary of Sikkim was directed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) December 7, 2023 to file a six monthly report showing the action taken on the issue of solid and liquid waste management in the state.
The bench of Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Sudhir Agarwal, after going through the progress report from August 2023 onwards (filed on December 6, 2023), noted that 68.9 tonnes of municipal waste is generated per day. But only 23.75 tonnes is processed in a day and the remaining 45.15 tonnes are dumped in landfills daily.
Further, 150,000 tonnes of legacy waste is accumulated in Gangtok for which bio mining has been proposed. Since the legacy waste is unattended and with the existing daily solid waste getting accumulated which is 45.15 tonnes per day the waste accumulation as a legacy waste would become untreatable leading to huge contamination of soil, leachate generation apart from harming birds and other fauna, the court said.
The court pointed out some deficiencies in the report. For instance, there is no information regarding the functioning and outer water quality of the nine STPs. Further, the utilisation of the treated water has also not been indicated.
Even after a court-ordered joint committee has recommended seeking environmental compensation from a residential society in Gurugram, Haryana for releasing untreated sewage and effluents in violation of green norms, the concerned authorities of the state have not passed the final orders for the same, the National Green Tribunal noted on December 8, 2023.
The Haryana State Pollution Control Board September 25, 2023 had recommended an environmental compensation of Rs 3,40,50,000 for not obtaining consent to operate and discharging untreated effluent / sewage on open land. But in the two and a half months since then, there has been no movement on the same, the court said.
NGT directed notice to be issued to the state of Haryana, Haryana State Pollution Control Board, District Magistrate, Gurugram and Ansal Properties & Infrastructure Ltd. All the respondents have been directed to file their reply within four weeks and the court listed the matter for February 8, 2024.
The original application was registered on the basis of a petition dated March 31, 2023 sent by Esencia Residents Welfare Association, Sector 67, Gurugram. According to the complaint, untreated sewage water is filling up areas near residential buildings, roads within the premises, vacant plots as well as sites meant for hospitals, schools, clubs at Ansal Esencia and Ansal Versilia complexes.
No sewage / effluent treatment plant was constructed as mandated by the environmental clearance and builders were issued occupation certificates before the treatment plant was built. As a result, occupancy was allowed flouting environmental laws, the applicants wrote.
NGT December 8 directed a joint committee to submit a report on Lassara drain pollution by December 14, 2023, failing which the district magistrate of Ludhiana would appear on the next date (December 15).
The original application under Section 14 and 15 of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 has been registered, considering the grievance that Jargari drain constructed by the villagers, crosses under the First Patiala Feeder Canal and outfalls into the Lassara drain. The Lassara, the petitioners added, is an interstate drain, has no outfall and it has become a pond.
The stagnant water in the drain overflows and stands in the fields of the applicants and other residents of the area.
Further, an issue has been raised stating that stagnating water is leading to killing / drying of the trees in the area and that the test report of the sample of the untreated water shows that the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and faecal coliform were more than the prescribed standards.
The sample had a BOD of 55 mg per litre against the prescribed 30 mg per litre and a faecal coliform level of 94,000 per 100 millilitres against the prescribed standard of less than 1,000.
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