Remove solid waste dumped along highways, railway tracks within 30 days: Justice Pal

Justice Pritam Pal (retired), chairman of the National Green Tribunal-appointed executive committee on Ghaggar and solid waste management, on Saturday asked officials

Justice Pritam Pal (retired), chairman of the National Green Tribunal-appointed executive committee on Ghaggar and solid waste management, on Saturday asked officials to ensure the removal of garbage and solid waste along state/national highways and railway tracks passing through Haryana within 30 days.

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During a two-day regional conference on environment, waste mitigation and management, attended by Justice Adrash Kumar Goel, chairperson, NGT, and senior officials from Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, Pal said that there was a lack of sensitivity among the stakeholders in the system in addressing the environmental issue. “The district-level enforcement agencies should remove the garbage and solid waste dumped near highways and railway tracks within 30 days,” he said.

“While visiting 22-22 districts located along the tributaries of rivers Satluj, Beas, Yamuna, and Ghaggar, I did not see any serious work take place. Even regional officers, at times, would fail to locate the source of pollution within the area of their jurisdiction. There is a stark difference between the ground reality and presentations given in meetings,” Pal said, addressing policymakers and departments such as the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB).

Expressing concern over the slow pace of pollution curbing, Pal said those violating environmental norms were hardly punished. He stated, “A series of Acts was framed focusing on the environment after India participated in the 1972 Stockholm Conference. The Environment Protection Act, 1986 was introduced with a penalty clause that stated whosoever commit a violation under the Act would be jailed for five years and would have pay ₹1 lakh as a penalty. Also, as per Section 17 of the Act, if the department also commits a violation, then the head of the department would be held responsible. But this does not happen,” Pal said.

Justice Goel said that Gurugram should emerge as a model city in dealing with pollution-related issues. Sharing the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data, Goel said that 351 river stretches in the country are so polluted that their water is not even fit to bathe in. “It majorly includes all the rivers of the country. Similarly, the air in 122 cities and 100 industrial areas is polluted. Data shows that the situation is serious, but that’s because we do not know what we have to do,” Goel said. He added that Gurugram and Delhi are counted among the most polluted cities in the world and several people were falling sick because of poor air and water quality.