Environment Authority For Tn Tanneries Soon

These were the points mooted by the judges after hearing environment lawyer M C Mehta, who alleged that land and water in five districts have been poisoned by tanneries, chemical and dyeing units. The allegations have been confirmed by several expert reports.

Mehta pressed for compensation for the landowners whose habitat and farmland are in ruins now. He quoted the precedent set by the Supreme Court in the DCM oleum gas leak case and the judgment of July 16 in which it had granted Rs 1.39 crore in compensation to Andhra villagers in similar circumstances. The amount was arrived at on the basis of a survey by land revenue officers who assessed the previous income from the farmland and the individual cost to each of the sufferers.

Mehta asked the division bench consisting of Justice Kuldip Singh, Justice Faizan Uddin and Justice K Venkataswami to apply the same principles in the case of the Tamil Nadu districts.

The district collectors can assess the damage to individual landholders, with the assistance of expert bodies, counsel pleaded.

The judges said in the order to be passed next week, they will also give the tanneries and other polluting units enough time to set up effluent-treatment plants.

After passing these orders, the Supreme Court is likely to transfer the Tamil Nadu cases to the Madras high court, so that the progress can be monitored there.

Several lawyers representing the tanneries told the court that they have set up individual and common effluent-treatment plants. But the court told them that it would not go into the individual cases and pass a general order disposing of the batch of cases, pending in the court for five years.