NGT slams government inaction against scrap industries

The green panel also ordered the officials to appear before it on May 3 with compliance report.

The National Green Tribunal has slammed the Delhi government for not taking action against illegal scrap industries in Mayapuri causing pollution, saying why is the chief secretary helpless in protecting lives.

NGT slams government inaction against scrap industries (Hindustan Times)

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel directed the chief secretary and the Chairman and Member Secretary, Delhi Pollution Control Committee to respond why they should not be jailed and be prosecuted if illegal activities are not stopped and people remain suffering on account of illegal activities.

The green panel also ordered the officials to appear before it on May 3 with compliance report.

Stating that “there cannot be blackmailing by law violators”, the tribunal also rejected a plea of business-owners that they be given alternative land before any step is taken to shut their activities at the site. The NGT said there is acknowledged failure to comply with the orders of the tribunal by the Delhi government and the chief secretary appears to have merely expressed helplessness in taking action. “We fail to understand why guilty are not being prosecuted in spite of more than five years of order of this Tribunal and in spite of undertaking given by the Chief Secretary before the Tribunal. Why electricity is being supplied for illegal polluting activities. Why no officer has been dismissed nor any polluter arrested or punished,” it said. The panel said no meaningful steps have been taken in four years for compliance and even the performance guarantee, as required, has not been furnished and responsibility shifted.