NGT allows Bhushan Steel and Strips Ltd to operate for 3 weeks

The National Green Tribunal today allowed Bhushan Steel and Strips Ltd's Sahibabad plant in Uttar Pradesh, which had been ordered to be closed for polluting the environment, to operate for three weeks.
The green panel also directed a joint inspection team, comprising members from IIT-Delhi, Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board and Central Pollution Control board, to inspect the unit and submit a comprehensive report to it within a week.
"The inspection report will give comprehensive report whether the unit is complying with all norms or not. The team will also take samples from the inlet and outlet of the effluent treatment plant of the unit," a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar said while posting the matter for next hearing on January 6.

The Tribunal passed the order after senior advocate Vikas Singh said the industrial unit, situated in site-4 industrial area of Sahibabad, was complying with all mandatory pollution standards.
On December 10, the Tribunal had ordered the closure of the unit for four weeks declaring it to be a polluting industry.
It had further said that "within a period of four weeks, the industrial unit shall take all remedial measures, ensuring that effluents being discharged are not in any way excessive than the prescribed parameters.
The order came on a plea filed by environment activist Shailesh Singh alleging that ground water in Ghaziabad is highly contaminated and several industrial units of the area were responsible for contamination and extracting high quantity of ground water without permission for industrial use.