Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in the Supreme Court, the high courts and the National Green Tribunal
Action was being taken against contamination of groundwater in Aloarakh village of Bhawanigarh block in Sangrur district, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) said in its report to the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
The NGT had taken cognizance of an application filed by HC Arora. The application had called out the failure of the state authorities to take remedial measures against contamination of groundwater in Aloarakh.
The chief secretary of Punjab had constituted a monitoring committee to comply with the NGT order, March 31, 2022.
The PPCB report mentioned that display boards had been installed by a team consisting of the PPCB assistant environmental engineer and Naib Tehsildar, Bhawanigarh, in English as well as Punjabi.
They had the text ‘Water not fit for drinking’ at five tubewells around the site, which had been found to be contaminated by the Joint Committee constituted by the NGT.
The PPCB had written a letter June 6, 2022 to the member secretary, Central Pollution Control Board requesting advice on whether the site was notified as a contaminated site and whether the PPCB could proceed to implement the remediation plan as suggested by the Joint Committee and directed by the NGT.
An amount of Rs 99 lakh has been imposed as environmental compensation on the Nagar Palika Parishad (municipality), Panna for non-compliance of Municipal Solid Waste Rules 2016, the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board said in its report to the NGT.
The compensation has been imposed for the period January-June 2022.
The matter related to the discharge of untreated sewage effluent into the Kilkila river by the Panna municipality. This had degraded the water quality of the river and hadadversely affected agricultural land and public health.
A stormwater drain in Khampur village, Delhi had been desilted and garbage and construction and demolition waste dumped in it had been cleared by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), a report filed by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), said.
Prem Prakash Prajapati, president of Senior Citizen Forum for Environment, had filed a petition before the NGT. It said a stormwater drain had been removed by the contractor of the NHAI at the time of widening National Highway 44 near the village.
This had been done without making an alternate arrangement for the domestic wastewater and septic tank water of Khampur.
As a result of removal of the drain, the entire wastewater of the village had accumulated in the area excavated during the project. It had contaminated groundwater, raising a stink and posing serious health risks to local residents, besides damaging the environment.
The report of August 17, 2022 was uploaded to the NGT site, October 4, 2022
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