E-Paper
‘Ensure environmental restoration, clean drinking water, air near Panipat refinery’
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed a joint committee to monitor remedial actions for environment restoration and propose action plan to provide safe drinking water and clean air to residents of villages near the Indian Oil Corporation’s Panipat’s refinery in a time-bound manner
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed a joint committee to monitor remedial actions for environment restoration and propose action plan to provide safe drinking water and clean air to residents of villages near the Indian Oil Corporation’s Panipat’s refinery in a time-bound manner.
In a hearing via video conferencing, the bench, headed by NGT chairperson justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, ordered, “We find it appropriate to direct a joint committee comprising the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the Haryana Pollution Control Board and Panipat district magistrate to monitor further remedial action.”
“These include restoration of groundwater quality, supply of safe drinking water to the affected people, development of green belts, rainwater harvesting, medical checkups of residents, trapping of volatile organic compounds, installation of online continuous effluent monitoring system, and development of necessary systems to prevent discharge of untreated waste,” the bench added.
As per the orders, the Haryana Pollution Control Board will be the nodal agency for coordination and compliance of the action plan as per the schedule and the committee will meet at least once a month till execution of the said action plan.
“A quarterly progress report may be furnished by the committee to chief secretary, Haryana, and chairman of the CPCB. Even a monthly progress report has to be put up on the website of the Panipat district magistrate,” further read the order.
The orders are based on findings of a committee set up to assess damage to the environment and public health by air and water pollution caused by the Panipat refinery after residents of villages in its vicinity, led by Singhpura Sithna village sarpanch Satpal Singh, had taken up the issue with the NGT in 2018.
They had alleged that the refinery is polluting the air and water in its vicinity.
Following the compliant, the NGT had formed a joint team for ground-level inspection to assess damage to environment and human health.
In its report, the committee had found many environmental violations including samples from the effluent treatment plant (ETP) of the unit being non-compliant, ambient air quality exceeding the norms, VOCs resulting in eye irritation, untreated effluents being discharged into the green belt areas, untreated effluents being stored in open storage lagoon without VOC recovery system, and the groundwater samples not complying with the norms.
In May 2019, on recommendations of the first assessment report of the joint committee, the NGT had directed the oil company to deposit ₹17.31 crore to the CPCB as interim compensation for restoration of environment.
Then again in July 2020, the NGT had directed the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) officials to deposit a sum of ₹25 crore as interim compensation for restoration of environment.
Reacting over the orders, HSPCB member secretary S Narayanan said, “Since the HSPCB has been made the nodal agency, we will follow all steps for compliance of the orders as per schedule with the help of other members of the joint committee.”
In its reply to the NGT on March 18, the IOCL had claimed that they have complied with most issues raised by the joint committee and steps were taken to stop illegal discharge into the Thirana drain and work to cover all open sources of VOC emission will be completed by May 21 this year.
Vivek Narain, general manager (A&W) Panipat refinery, said, “We have duly received the final orders of the NGT and are studying it. The NGT has considered the report submitted by the joint committee in the order and not levied any further compensation upon the IOCL.
“The IOCL is committed to protection of environment. All directives suggested by the NGT will be complied by,” he added.
