Green ministry to SC: Not liable if rules not followed

The environment ministry has shunned responsibility in implementing its own green rules and says it cannot be liable for failure to implement them as it was the job of the state government. Chetan Chauhan reports. Green rules

Updated on: May 8, 2013, 02:06:01 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The environment ministry has shunned responsibility in implementing its own green rules and says it cannot be liable for failure to implement them as it was the job of the state government.

In a petition filed in the Supreme Court, the ministry said that it was not "feasible and practical for MoEF to monitor implementation of each and every notification."

The ministry moved SC challenging an order of the National Green Tribunal, which had imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on the ministry for its failure to implement its notification for declaring 15 km around Kaziranga National Park in Assam as 'no development zone' for industrial activity. The money was to be deposited with Director of Kaziranga National Park.

The tribunal held that the ministry and the state government had failed to carry out their duties in implementing the provisions of the 1996 notification. The notification was issued to protect the rich Kaziranga wildlife from adverse impact of industrial activities in the area.

The ministry told the Apex Court that it could act only if there is any complaint of violation of its rules and it would attract the penal provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.

The ministry also said that the notification was sent to Assam government in 1996 and the state pollution control board should have taken the notification into account while giving consents to operate to the industries.

The ministry has six regional offices across India, including one in Shillong, to ensure that its rules are followed. But, they are blatantly flouted and the ministry blames lack of manpower for its failure to enforce regulations for environment protection.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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