JAIPUR: Elaborate environmental clearances by the ministry of environment and forests (MOE&F) and the state
pollution control board have not helped in safeguarding the state's environment.
Proving this yet again, the
National Green Tribunal (
NGT) has issued orders to the collector and municipal commissioner of
Bhilwara
to enforce compliance and rectify several environmental abuses committed by
Jindal Saw Ltd
in Bhilwara.
The company's environmental abuses include illegal mining, taking over the green belt, `charagah' (pasture) land, cremation ground and graveyard, etc., other than polluting the public Samodi pond.
The consent to establish the company was first granted by the
Rajasthan state pollution control board (RSPCB) on December 16, 2010. Subsequently, the company got the consent to operate on October 29, 2014.
They also received NOCs from the Central ground water authority, MOE&F, the state government after agreeing to submit half-yearly reports on the status of the compliance of stipulated environmental clearance conditions.
A 35-point half-yearly compliance report, dated April 16, 2015, by the Jindal Saw Ltd, a copy of which is with the TOI, shows the company has complied with all environmental norms.
But, in 2015, environmental activist Babulal Jajoo approached the NGT through his counsel Dr M S Kachhawa, accusing the company of several environmental abuses such as illegal mining, taking over the green belt, and polluting the public pond, among others.
In their order, the group of Justice Dalip Singh, judicial member and Justice Satyawan Singh Garbyal, expert member of NGT instructed the company to comply with environmental conditions, including freeing Bhilwara of all stray cattle and managing them in a `gaushala' using CSR funds.
The collector Bhilwara has also identified certain areas where the company has conducted illegal mining.These have been ordered to be refilled with soil and compensatory afforestation.“The NGT had asked the company to plant 10,000 trees during the previous hearing on May 29, 2017. But, making a mockery of their commitment, the company has planted only 300 trees, that too on the land that in the future may be allotted to RIICO to set up an industrial estate when the trees are again liable to be cut,“ said Jajoo.
The NGT has suggested the river front of Kothari river for tree plantation. “The collector, in consultation with the forest department, would identify areas that would always remain as the green belt and not liable to be allotted for any other purposes,“ reads the NGT order. “While in its half-yearly compliance report on April 16, 2015, the company had claimed that they were not discharging effluents and trans porting slurry through a closed pipeline, the overburdened site has allegedly become filled with sludge or quicksand where the cows have got stuck, with some even dying in the area. Now, the NGT has ordered setting up of a sewage treatment plant (STP),“ said counsel Kachhawa.
Company prepares action planWhile denying they had done any illegal mining at Dhed was, Bhilwara, a Jindal Saw Ltd source said on condition of anonymity , “The company has prepared an action plan and agreed to comply . Hopefully, in the next two-three days, the government will identify the land so that we can plant 10,000 trees by the next date of hearing on October 16.“
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