Poop from skies: NGT asks govt to pay Rs 5000 to army officer

The National Green Tribunal has directed the Centre to pay Rs 5,000, which was imposed as costs for the delay in filing its reply, to a retired army officer who alleged dumping of human excreta by aircraft over residential areas near the IGI Airport here.
A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar directed the Environment Ministry and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to pay Rs 5,000 each to the petitioner within a week.
"The counsel appearing for the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change submits that they would pay the cost within one week... The same has been sanctioned by the Ministry. Let that be done positively within one week," the bench said.

During the hearing, the army officer also filed his response to the inspection report carried out by scientists of the Central Pollution Control Board, in his house in pursuance to NGT directions.
He sought directions to the DGCA to comply with the orders issued by the tribunal asking it to issue circular to all ground-handling services and airlines to ensure that they do not release waste from human waste tanks while landing or anywhere near the terminals of the IGI Airport.
The direction came on the plea of Lt Gen (Retd) Satwant Singh Dahiya who has sought criminal proceedings against commercial airlines and levy of hefty fines on them for endangering the health of residents.

In his petition, Vasant Enclave-resident Dahiya had sought creation of a 24-hour helpline for immediate reporting of such incidents and a monitoring mechanism to check that no aircraft drops "human soil or excreta" while landing.

The tribunal had last year held that if "any aircraft, airlines and the handlings services of registered aircraft" are found to be dumping human waste in air or toilet tanks are found to be emptied before landing they shall be subjected to environmental compensation of Rs 50,000 per default.
It had also asked the DGCA to carry out surprise inspection of the aircraft landing at the airport to ensure that their toilet tanks are not emptied while landing and waste splashed on residential areas and on any other place prior to landing and sought quarterly report.

"The record so collected shall be placed in the public domain. The DGCA shall provide helpline number Telephone/ Mobile of its officer at the airport where the person desirous of lodging complaint regarding such mischief in future can approach the authorities for appropriate reliefs.
This information shall be put in the public domain and public at large informed of all helpline numbers and emails IDs," the bench had said.