E-Paper
IIM to nurture environment ambassadors
THE LAW has become very strict on issues related to the environment even as the courts are pitching in with their pro-active approach. Stating this on the concluding day of the IIM-L workshop on ?Youth participation in environmental compliance and enforcement? on Sunday .
THE LAW has become very strict on issues related to the environment even as the courts are pitching in with their pro-active approach. Stating this on the concluding day of the IIM-L workshop on ‘Youth participation in environmental compliance and enforcement’ on Sunday, the chief guest, SMA Kazmi, Advocate-General, UP, informed the participants who had come here from across the country that as many as 39 tanneries have been closed down in Kanpur after it was found that they were polluting the Ganges.
“I, myself, have been taking a very active interest in settling the issue,” the Advocate-General said. Kazmi, who had convened a meeting of senior officials to ensure that the polluting tanneries must be dealt with an iron hand, said, “It was important to understand the relationship between the environment and law.”
Kazmi, whose address was very well received by the ‘environment ambassadors’ taking part in the IIM-L workshop, said even on issues concerning protection of wild life sanctuaries etc the Apex court had taken a very clear view that no sanctuary should be de-notified without proper reason. Kazmi, however, cautioned the participants not to get carried away with the legal knowledge that they have acquired at the IIM-L.
“Though acquiring knowledge is ok but then do not get carried away. For, often it has been noticed that there is a crisis of credibility as and when Public Interest Litigations (PILs) are filed.
File PIL by all means, but do not take it as a means to attract publicity,” he advised.
Participants who cheered the Advocate-General right through his address later took a pledge to make at least one person aware about the relationship between the law and environment. “They have promised to create at least 30 environment ambassadors per month and send the names of those who have been made aware to IIM-L. We have decided to take it up as a movement,” Prof DS Sengar, who along with Prof RL Raina was among the course directors of the workshop, informed HT Lucknow Live.
Two more workshops have been planned by IIM-L now. The idea is to create about 100 ‘environment ambassadors’ who would then fan out across the country to make more people aware about the importance of protecting the environment.
