Green tribunal orders closure of polluting industries in 3 months
The National Green Tribunal’s principal bench in Delhi on July 10 ordered the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), along with the state pollution control boards (SPCBs) to close 69 Polluted Industrial Areas (PIAs).
The tribunal has taken up suo moto cognisance of the issue of pollution by industrial clusters.
On the basis of a study jointly carried out by the CPCB and the State pollution control boards in 2009-10, industrial clusters were notified as Polluted Industrial Areas and ranked as ‘critically polluted areas’, ‘severely polluted areas’ and ‘other polluted areas’, depending on their respective Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index scores.
A Bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel directed the CPCB to assess, in coordination with the State pollution control boards, the quantum of compensation to be recovered from polluting units for the last five years, taking into account the cost of restoration and the cost of damage to public health and environment and the deterrence element.
The industrial clusters whose CEPI score was more than 70 have been categorised as CPAs, those whose index is between 60-70 as SPAs and those below 60 as OPAs.
The tribunal said no activity or expansion will be allowed in these industrial clusters until these areas are brought within the prescribed parameters of environmental norms.
Seeking a compliance report by the CPCB after three months by e-mail, the NGT posted the matter for hearing on November 5.
