Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in the Supreme Court, the high courts and the National Green Tribunal
The Supreme Court (SC) on March 14, 2023, directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to ensure that all the retail petroleum outlets located in cities with a population of more than one million and a turnover of more than 300 kilolitres a month install vapour recovery system (VRS) within a fresh timeline.
The apex court asked CPCB to instruct state pollution control boards to ensure the implementation of the guidelines issued by the CPCB on January 7, 2020. In case of violation, the concerned board shall proceed against the erring outlet in accordance with the law at the earliest, the court said.
The court was responding to a set of appeals seeking to challenge an order passed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in December 2021.
The NGT order directed the CPCB as well as SPCBs to issue directions to make VRS mandatory for obtaining consent for new retail petroleum outlets as well as the existing retail petroleum outlets.
VBR Menon, a resident of Chennai, had filed the original application before the NGT regarding the non-installation of VRS in the petroleum outlets.
There are 16 legacy waste dumpsites in Himachal Pradesh and 263,641 tonnes of legacy waste has been dumped here, said a state government report submitted to the NGT.
Around 83,311.28 tonnes of legacy waste has been cleared from the dumpsites. Two dumpsites at Sunder Nagar and Sarkaghat have been cleared and in 14 legacy dumpsites, biomining has started.
When it comes to the plastic waste buy-back policy, the state has purchased and processed — through cement and road construction industries — 258 tonnes of plastic so far. December 2023 is the timeline fixed for achieving a 100 per cent municipal solid waste processing target.
The gaps are mainly due to land issues in newly formed urban local bodies.
Compost is used in parks and gardens of urban local bodies (ULB) and some ULBs started selling it for agriculture and horticulture. In some areas, compost is distributed free of cost.
Inert waste (soil/dust/gravels/glass/process rejects) is in very small quantities and is disposed of locally through land levelling. Landfill facilities are being developed at Shimla and Baddi, said the report.
Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB) has issued a notice for imposing environmental compensation of Rs 60 lakh on the chief municipal officer, Nagar Palika Parishad, Mandideep, against violating Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.
Non-remediation of legacy waste was a point of non-compliance, stated the MPPCB report submitted to the NGT on March 15.
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