The Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up the Centre for putting “the health of citizens to ransom” by giving an extension of five years to over 500 coal-based thermal power plants to adhere to stricter emission norms.
A bench of justices MB Lokur and Deepak Gupta recalled that as per December 2015 notification the plants were to adhere to the emission regulations by December 2017 but a fresh government affidavit states that the deadline for plants to comply with the earlier directive has been extended till 2022.
“It seems your officers are not breathing the same air. There is no will to implement your own regulations. Why don’t you be frank enough to say on affidavit that you are not going to do it? We will close the case and all this junk (files) will go,” Justice Lokur told the advocate representing the government.
“From the (government’s) affidavit it’s quite clear that the power ministry has no intention to do anything to reduce pollution…,” the bench noted in its order.
The court directed the government to identify thermal plants that have a capacity of more than 500 Mega Watt and are located in areas having population density of more than 400 persons per square kilometre. It told the government to underline the timeline a timeline for the implementation of technological inputs in them so as to reduce emission.
{{/usCountry}}The court directed the government to identify thermal plants that have a capacity of more than 500 Mega Watt and are located in areas having population density of more than 400 persons per square kilometre. It told the government to underline the timeline a timeline for the implementation of technological inputs in them so as to reduce emission.
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