Air pollution: NGT fines Bengal Rs 5cr

Jayanta Basu, TT, Calcutta, 28.11.18: The eastern bench of the National Green Tribunal on Tuesday slapped a Rs 5-crore fine on the state government for “failing to comply” with its two-year-old directives to combat air pollution in Calcutta and Howrah.

The bench summoned the chief secretary to appear before it on January 8 and submit a comprehensive affidavit on the steps the government plans to undertake to combat toxic air in the twin cities.

The fine has to be paid to the central pollution control board within two weeks. In case of failure, another Rs 1 crore will be added every month, according to the order.

The state has failed to take effective steps in controlling vehicular emission and the plying of 15 year old commercial vehicles, the bench said.

The government has not taken steps to combat air pollution, as proposed by the expert committee and turned into a court order in 2016, Subhas Datta, activist and petitioner in the case, claimed.

The tribunal observed that they had expressed dissatisfaction over the matter last year as well. “The state cannot be allowed to continue with this failure and directs it to pay an environment compensation of Rs 5 crore to the CPCB within two weeks under polluters pay principle as specified in the Section 20 of the National Green Tribunal act”.

In 2016, the tribunal’s expert committee had submitted a detailed report with a series of recommendations to counter the increasing air pollution levels in the city.

The recommendations a focused on vehicular pollution and included augmentation of air monitoring network, scrapping of commercial vehicles 15 years old or more, streamlining the traffic system to minimise congestion, streamlining auto emission testing centres, and stopping of burning of waste in the open in Calcutta and Howrah among others.

“We will discuss the order with the transport and environment departments and then decide on our response,” a government lawyer present at the hearing said.

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