NGT penalizes Bhopal Municipal Corporation for damaging environment

NGT penalizes Bhopal Municipal Corporation for damaging environment

Imposes Rs.1.8 crore fine for flouting norms

The Central Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has imposed a penalty on Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) for operating the Adampur Chhavani solid waste dumping site without complying with the Central Board of Pollution Control (CPCB) guidelines and damaging the environment.

The tribunal said that the penalty amount would be utilized for remediation and restoration of the landfill site. It formed a committee to prepare a plan for the purpose and its execution.

NGT’s decision was based on a joint committee report while hearing a petition filed by environmentalist Subhash C Pandey following the fire incident at the Adampur site early this year.

The committee comprised a member each from CPCB; Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB); Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC), experienced in handling the work of solid waste disposal; and Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT), Bhopal.

The NGT directed BMC to deposit the amount with MPPCB within two months.

The tribunal comprising Sudhir Agarwal (judicial member) and Afroz Ahmad (expert member) ordered, "In the absence of any substantive reason or objections, we find it justified to accept the joint committee report to the effect of establishing deleterious effects of operating the landfill site in a crude manner and no remediation was done for legacy waste management. The recommendations must be complied with by the respondents. Also, appropriate environmental compensation should be imposed on BMC on the principle of 'polluter pays' for having caused damage to air and contaminating groundwater due to seepage of leachate at the dump site."

The order further read, "The committee has recommended compensation from 15 December 2021 to 4 April 2023 at the rate of Rs.10 lakh per month and a total compensation of Rs.1.5 crores. Since we are at the end of July 2023, we add three more months’ compensation i.e., up to 10 July 2023. This is done by computing compensation as per the tribunal's order passed on 14 December 2020 of Rs.1.80 crores.”

The tribunal maintained that the restoration plan would be prepared by a joint committee comprising MPPCB, CPCB, the district collector, and the divisional forest officer of Bhopal. The plan is to be prepared within two months and executed within three months under the guidance of MPPCB, the nodal agency.

NGT stated that BMC has been directed to comply with all recommendations made in the committee’s report. A compliance/progress report shall be filed by BMC and MPPCB by 15 November, before the registrar of the central zonal bench, Bhopal.