Fine on UPSIDC for pollution: NGT refuses to modify order

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has refused to modify its order directing UP State Industrial Development Corporation (UPSIDC) to pay a fine of Rs 2 lakh per day for a non-functional waste treatment plant in Ghaziabad's Tronica City.
The integrated industrial township was conceived in the 1990s to develop the industrially-backward area of Loni and to attract the untapped entrepreneurial skills of northeast Delhi.
A bench headed by Justice Jawad Rahim ordered the UPSIDC to immediately comply with its June 12 order and refused to grant more time to it saying that its lackadaisical approach has resulted in industrial pollution in the area.

"We have assigned reasons on June 12, to take a serious view of non-compliance of the directions and undertaking by UPSIDC resulting in severe adverse impact on the environment. We find no reason to modify our order passed on June 12 or to be liberal in granting further time," the bench, also comprising expert member Ajay A Deshpande, said.
The counsel appearing for the UPSIDC told the tribunal that it has taken all requisite steps to ensure that the CETP is functional and sought six weeks time to complete the work and submit a report.
However, the green panel refused to grant more time to the UPSIDC.

The tribunal had earlier said that despite an undertaking by the UPSIDC that it would remove the deficiencies and make the sewage treatment plant (STP) functional, the directions had not been complied with till date.

The green panel had directed the UPSIDC to pay the fine to the state pollution control board till the STP was made functional and the orders were complied with.
The tribunal was hearing a plea filed by Ghaziabad resident Rashid Ali Warsi and others seeking directions to the UPSIDC to make operational the common effluent treatment plant (CETP) installed by the industrial units in Tronica City.

The NGT had last year ordered inspection of the units by the UP Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) and asked it to analyse the effluents released from them.
The UPPCB had told the tribunal that the CETP run by the units lacked the consent to operate.