Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (June 10, 2022)

Most industries at Sanwer Road Industrial Area extracting groundwater illegally

Analysis report by a joint committee of the groundwater samples of the Sanwer Road Industrial Area, Indore found that dissolved solids are more than prescribed standards. 

This may be due to land application of the treated effluent for a long time by industries in the past, when a common sewage and effluent treatment plant was not installed. 

Another reason could be discharge of untreated domestic wastewater from residential colonies located upstream of the industrial area into Narvar nallah which passes through the industrial area, the report said. 

It was also observed that maximum industries are extracting groundwater without obtaining a ‘no-objection certificate’ from the Central Ground Water Authority.

TDI Infra manipulate report to NGT on providing amenities 

TDI Infrastructure Ltd showed false records to the National Green Tribunal for residential project TDI City Kundli, Sonipat, Haryana, according to the affidavit filed by applicants Manorama Sharma and Sandeep Sachin. 

The applicants are plot buyers of the project spread over around 1200 acres of land. The plots are to be constructed by the plot buyers themselves, while common amenities like sewerage, electricity, water, horticulture, sewage treatment plant and rainwater harvesting were supposed to be provided by the project proponent, which it has failed to provide. 

The project proponent has tried to play fraud upon NGT by manipulating the records. Apart from filing documents pertaining to the residential project to show false development, it can be seen that a single environment clearance certificate for the several sectors has been filed by the proponent.

NGT wants zero-tolerance policy against unnecessary honking

There is a need to increase awareness on noise pollution and increase prosecution, said an NGT committee. The zero-tolerance policy should be followed in case of unnecessary honking, according to a report by the committee headed by SP Garg submitted to NGT. 

The matter is related to the problem of noise pollution in Delhi. The report was in compliance with NGT orders of August 11, 2020 and February 3, 2022.

Automobiles constitute the largest group of noise menace and in a city, 60-70 per cent of noise comes from road traffic, the report said. 

Measures such as planting trees, awareness with respect to no-honking, quieter vehicles, quieter tyres, speed reduction, home insulation and smooth road surface can be followed to reduce vehicular noise.

Another proposal was that the draft guidelines for construction works, on which Delhi Pollution Control Committee is working, should be expedited and finalised.

Sand mining on Jhanpar riverbed

Necessary permission and approvals were sought to carry our sand mining in Jhanpar riverbed in Barach village of Shahdol district, Madhya Pradesh, a joint committee that wrote in a report submitted to NGT June 7, 2022 after inspection of the mine sites. 

The sand excavation from Jhanpar river has had a huge impact on its water level, villagers and Gram Panchayat officials had written to NGT. They had filed the complaint before the court alleging that no proposal was made by the sarpanch, district member and deputy sarpanch of Barach in relation to the sand mines. 

"It seems that the matters raised in the complaint are based on possibilities and unfounded assumptions and faulty notions," the report said. The present situation is that the mining activities in these mines have been stopped just after commencement in the month of January 2022 and could not be possible up to September 2022 due to monsoon season.

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