NGT seeks report on plea on illegal groundwater use by Mitsui Kingzoku

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has sought a factual report from a panel on alleged illegal extraction of groundwater by Mitsui Kingzoku Components India Private Ltd. in the industrial town of Bawal in Rewari district of Haryana.

The Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) had already designated the area as "over exploited," according to a petition before the NGT that claimed the project proponent (PP) was in violation of the terms of the 'No Objection Certificate' (NOC), which specified the amount of groundwater to be removed.

According to the applicant, NOC was granted to the PP by the ground water authority for groundwater abstraction up to 30m3/day and not exceeding 18,000 m3/year.

According to the petition, the tribunal's earlier judgement from November 2022 directing the CGWA to take corrective action against non-compliance by the PP, including recovering compensation equal to 0.5 per cent of the project cost, was not followed, a bench of Chairperson Justice A. K. Goel observed.

The applicant has also referred the RTI reply dated October 6, 2020, such that the unit is not complying with the condition on which ground water extraction has been permitted.

The tribunal then directed that the report be submitted within two months.

"We find it necessary to require a factual report in the matter from a joint Committee of CGWA, central pollution control board (CPCB), State pollution control board (PCB) and District Magistrate, Rewari," the bench, which also included Justice Sudhir Agarwal and Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi as well as A. Senthil Vel, an expert member, said.

The court scheduled the matter for the next hearing on July 10.

The state PCB will be the nodal agency for coordination and compliance, the bench noted.

--IANS

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