SC upholds NGT order, tells BMC to take steps to stop water pollution
MUMBAI: The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday declined to stay an order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), dated October 2020, which rapped the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for discharge of raw sewage into city creeks, rivers and drains. The SC said prescribed pollution norms are being violated, and directed BMC to expedite compliance with NGT’S orders which includes paying environmental compensation to the tune of ₹34 crore, in addition to future penalties.
BMC had filed a civil appeal before the Supreme Court in March, seeking a stay on NGT’S directions issued in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) by
NGO Vanashakti. The civic body had also attempted to stay a subsequent execution application that Vanashakti filed before NGT in June after observing little action by BMC toward complying with the Tribunal’s orders. A May audit report by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) revealed that none of the Tribunal’s mandated actions have been complied with so far.
The SC on Friday allowed Vanashakti’s execution application to proceed and also clarified that the municipal commissioner himself will be responsible for compliance with NGT’S directions. However, the Apex court said the commissioner need not appear before NGT in person. NGT had last month directed BMC commissioner IS Chahal to be present in person for the next hearing on August 28, while imposing additional environmental compensation of ₹2.1 crore on BMC.
“The municipal corporation must, in our view, make every effort to comply with the directions of the NGT by setting up the required facilities and upgrading existing facilities. Humanity can ill afford the luxury of using water bodies as dumping grounds of municipal waste. It is absolutely no valid answer to say that the directions which have been issued by NGT would pose budgetary implications for the municipal corporation...,” noted the Supreme Court bench comprising justice DY Chandrachud and justice MR Shah.
The Apex court also directed that within a period of two weeks, the commissioner shall file an affidavit before NGT “categorically indicating the steps which have been taken to comply with the directions of NGT, particularly with regard to ensuring compliance with the requisite standards for the discharge of effluents including municipal waste and sewage.”
BMC, in a written response to MPCB earlier this year, had stated it would require at least another “four to five years” to stop polluting Mumbai’s creeks, stormwater drains and rivers with raw or partially-treated sewage.
Officials with BMC’S sewage disposal project declined to comment on the story, saying that an official response will be presented to NGT in compliance with SC’S directions.