Handling of toxic waste: NGT seeks details from states

With the issue of toxic waste being released from industries becoming a major environmental issue, the National Green Tribunal has directed various state governments including the national capital to state how many industries were authorised to deal with hazardous waste.
A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar ordered Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments to file an affidavit and inform it about the mechanism of disposal of such hazardous waste.
"State of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan will file complete independent statements as to how many industries are granted authorisation for dealing with hazardous waste and how they are disposing their hazardous waste within two weeks.

"In the event of default we will be compelled to impose heavy cost for non-compliance of the directions of the Tribunal," the bench said.
The matter is now listed for next hearing on September 16.
The tribunal had earlier directed the central and Uttar Pradesh pollution control boards to jointly inspect Rathi Steel and Power Ltd's plant at Ghaziabad for alleged failure to take steps to control air and water pollution.
NGT's direction came on a plea by Ghaziabad resident Rajiv Narayan, who had alleged that rapid development of industries there has resulted in acute air and water pollution which is causing severe health problems to the city's dwellers.

According to him, CPCB in 2009 came up with Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI) by looking at four prime parameters to arrive at a score for water, air and land pollution. This index showed Ghaziabad as third most polluted city in the country.