National Green Tribunal
National Green Tribunal Southern Zone vs The District Collector Chengalpattu on 4 January, 2021
Author: K. Ramakrishnan
Bench: K. Ramakrishnan
Item No.9:
BEFORE THE NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL
SOUTHERN ZONE, CHENNAI
Original Application No.18 of 2020 (SZ)
(Through Video Conference)
IN THE MATTER OF:
Tribunal on its own motion
Suo Motu based on the news item in
The New Indian Express, Chennai Edition
Dated 27.01.2020, "Urapakkam resident's brave death
Threats, turn cesspool into lake".
...Applicant(s)
Versus
The District Collector,
Chengalpattu
District Collectorate Office,
Chengalpattu District and Ors.
...Respondent(s)
Date of hearing: 04.01.2021.
CORAM:
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K. RAMAKRISHNAN, JUDICIAL MEMBER
HON'BLE MR. SAIBAL DASGUPTA, EXPERT MEMBER
For Applicant(s): Suo Motu by Court.
For Respondent(s): Sri. Dr. V.R. Thirunarayanan for R1 & R4.
Sri. C. Kasirajan through
Ms. Meena for R2 & R3.
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ORDER
1. The above case has been Suo Motu registered by this Tribunal on the basis of the newspaper report published in The New Indian Express, Chennai Edition dated 27.01.2020 authored by M/s. Madumathi Viswanath under the caption "Urapakkam resident's brave death threats, turn cesspool into lake" 300 - Odd volunteers pool in close to Rs.20 Lakh to review a portion of this water body. This Tribunal had admitted the matter and also constituted a Joint Committee to inspect the area in question and directed them to submit a report and later, it was adjourned from time to time for that purpose. Lastly, the matter was taken up on 03.11.2020 and posted the case to 22.12.2020 for submission of the report and on 22.12.2020, it was adjourned to today by notification.
2. When the matter came up for hearing today through Video Conference, Sri. Dr. V.R. Thirunarayanan represented respondents 1 & 4 and Sri. C. Kasirajan through Ms. Meena represented respondents 2 & 3.
3. We have received the Joint Committee report dated 07.08.2020 which was received on 21.11.2020 by this Tribunal which reads as follows:
"INSPECTION REPORT OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE CONSTITUTED BY THE HON'BLE NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL (SOUTHERN ZONE) IN RESPECT OF O.A NO.18 OF 2020 IN THE MATTER OF: TRIBUNAL ON ITS OWN MOTION SUO MOTU BASED ON THE NEWS ITEM IN THE NEW INDIAN [2] EXPRESS, CHENNAI EDITION DT 27.01.2020. ÜRAPAKKAM RESIDENTS BRAVE DEATH THREATS, TURN CESSPOOL INTO LAKE The Hon'ble National Green Tribunal (NGT), Southern Zone(SZ), Chennai in its order dated 29.01.2020 in Original Application No.18 of 2020 has constituted a Joint Committee comprising of the (1) District Collector, Chengalpet District, (2) Secretary, Urapakkam Panchayat and (3)Tamil Nadu State Pollution Control Board and directed as follows:-
"to go to the allegation in the report and submit a factual report. If there are any violations or encroachment and deposition of waste and discharge of untreated effluent contaminating the water amounting to an amount to an offence under Section 25 of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and also as per the provisions of the Solid Waste Management Rules read with Environment Protection Act, then take action against them in accordance with law. The committee should also consider the question of preparing an action plan for restoring of the water body with specific timeline within which the same can be completed to restore and protect the water body from encroachment and contamination and also take appropriate action against those persons who are violating the same including imposition of Environmental compensations and submit the report to this Tribunal within a period of two months.
In compliance of the direction of the Hon'ble National Greeen Tribunal (SZ), the Joint Committee as constituted, has carried out the inspection in the area in question on 07.03.2020, 20.07.2020 and 01.08.2020 and the following observations were made Observations
1. Karanaipudhucheri Lake is located in Karanaipudhucheri Village Panchayat in an extent of 25.47 Hectares.
2. Karanaipudhucheri Lake is surrounded by residences of Mailima Nagar, Sri Sathya Sai Nagar in the Southern side, Periyar Nagar in the Northern side, residences of [3] Gokulam Colony Extension in the Eastern side and residences of Rajiv Gandhi Nagar in the Western side
3. Discharge of sewage into the said Lake from the residences located in the northern side of the Lake was noticed.
4. No discharge of industrial effluent was noticed during the time of inspection.
5. Municipal solid wastes were found dumped in the eastern fringe corner of the Lake.
6. Sample of Lake water was collected on 20.07.2020 to accertain the quality of the same and sent for analysis.
7. Encroachment was noticed in the northern side of the lake.
The Block Development Officer, Kattankolathur Panchayat Union has submitted the following proposal including remedial measures (Action Plan Short term & Long term):
1.Location of the Lake: Karanaipudhuceri - Survey No 388/A (12.856037,80.078514)
2. Total Area of the Karanaipudhucheri Lake: 25.47 Hectare
3. Total Area of the Karanaipudhucheri Panchayat : 6.87 Sq Km
4. Total Population of the Panchayat : 11400 Nos.
5. Total Household of the Panchayat : 3125 Nos.
6. No of Wards: 9 Nos
7. Generation of total Solid Waste in the Panchayat: 1.00 MT/day (Biodegradable waste - 0.50 MT and Non Biodegradable waste - 0.50 MT)
8. Collection Mechanism: 3 E-Cart Tricycles with 5 sanitary Workers.
9. Presently Solid Waste at dumping Yard: 10.00 MT (legacy)
10. Present Condition of Disposal:
Presently the waste collected from the Village Panchayat area is being collected by Panchayat sanitary workers using 3 E-Cart Tricycles deploying 5 sanitary workers and which is being dumped in the eastern fringe of the lake in Survey no. 388/A (12.856037,80.078514) which is [4] owned by Karanaipudhucheri Village Panchayat and there is encroachment in the said lake in the northern side, which is the main source for letting out of sewage and dumping of solid waste.
The Karanaipudhucheri Lake is surrounded by residences of Mailima Nagar, Sri Sathya Sai Nagar in the Southern side, Periyar Nagar in the Northern side, residences of Gokulam Colony Extension in the Eastern side and residences of Rajiv Gandhi Nagar in the Western side.
The total household in the Panchayat is 3125 Nos. Out of 3125Nos. of households 2675 Nos.,of houses are having individual septic tank and soak pit arrangements.The remaining 450 houses discharge their sewage into the Karanaipudhucheri Lake Short Term Remedies
1. Solid waste (legacy) dumped in the above said site (Survey no - 388/A) will be cleared by carrying out Bio mining within the period of two Months.
2. Sanitary staffs will be posted in the said site throughout the day.
3. During the night time, sanitary staffs will be posted to carry out monitoring activities to prevent any further dumping of wastes.
4. Village Panchayat of Karanaipudhucheri will be issuing notices to the households regarding not to dump the wastes and liquid waste (sewage) on the road side leading to the Lake and also with instruction to the public to provide Septic tank and soak pit in their houses respectively to prevent the sewage being discharged into the Lake.
5. Persons dumping solid waste in the road side will be identified and fine will be imposed. Due to this, the instances of dumping of wastes in public places other than the designated areas for the deposit of solid wastes will be reduced to a great extent.
6. Warning boards will be installed to prevent the dumping of the solid wastes.
7. In addition, sanitary workers will be deputed as a special step to remove the non-biodegradable wastes from the Garbage Vulnerable Points (GVP) and from the vacant private lands and to prevent further dumping of wastes in the road sides across the Panchayat area.[5]
8. Pamphlets will be issued in the locality regarding the source segregation of the solid wastes and the public will be encouraged to deposit only segregated wastes in the respective area. The sanitary supervisors will be conducting various demonstrations regarding the segregation of the wastes and the home compositing process will also be demonstrated to the residents in all the residential areas.
9. The Village Panchayat has provided 5 Nos of community soak pits at the northern bund of the Lake to handle the sewage discharged from the residences thereby preventing the same entering into the Lake.
Long Term Remedies:
1 Door to Door Collection will be made 100%. Segregated Municipal Solid Waste will be collected and the collection of garbage shall commence at 6 am and the daily operations shall close by 2p.m. 2 Total generation of solid waste is 1.00 MT. Segregated Biodegradable waste will be composted by providing a Micro Composting Centre and non degradable waste including plastic waste will be collected and will be sent to cement factories for co processing 3 Micro composting centre is proposed to be set up to handle the bio degradable waste. Necessary sanctions had been obtained for an estimated cost Rs 24.40 lakhs to prepare bio organic manure and also proposed to have a segregation shed to ensure proper segregation. The above said facility will be established within a period of three months. 4 It is proposed to provide fencing in the eastern corner of the Lake so as to prevent the public dumping the solid waste. This work will be completed within three months.
5 3 Green Friends (sanitary workers) with hired tractor shall be deployed to collect wastes from every household and one LCV to cover households on a daily basis supported by 3 E Carts and 3 push carts fitted with 4 bins (30 ltrs) to handle the biodegradable, recyclable and domestic hazardous wastes separately.
6 De-silting and cleaning of the bushes and strengthening of bunds in the said Lake is proposed to be carried out under CSR Scheme with help of Environmentalist Foundation of India (EFI) with an estimate cost of Rs. 32.37 Lakhs.[6]
7 Proposed to construct a Cement Concrete Drain to a length of 405m with Horizontal Filter to treat the sewage generated from the residences and the treated sewage will only be discharged into the Lake. 8 The eviction of encroachment in the lake will be carried out by approaching the Revenue authorities.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
The Joint Committee has considered the remedial measures submitted by the Block Development Officer, Kattankolathur Panchayat Union and has suggested the following recommendations:
i. The local body shall expedite the process of remedial measures as suggested above and shall be in letter and spirit and the time line shall be followed in strict sense, without any further delay. ii. The local body shall ensure 100% collection of solid waste being generated within its jurisdiction by adopting door to door collection of the segregated solid waste, processing and disposal. iii. The Block Development Officer, Kattankolathur Panchayat Union shall monitor and ensure that the local body is complied with the statutory requirements and for the scientific disposal of solid waste that are being generated in the local body.
iv. The Block Development Officer, Kattankolathur Panchayat Union shall ensure that there is no discharge of sewage and no dumping of solid waste from the local body area into the said water body. v. The Local body in co ordination with Revenue authorities shall take necessary steps for the eviction of encroachment in the water body. vi. Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board shall conduct periodical inspection / surprise inspection of the site in question and ensure that the local body is handling the sewage and solid waste in accordance with law."
4. Though, certain long term and short term measures have been provided, there was no specific timeline provided within which the same can be [7] completed. As a short term remedy, the Solid Waste dumped in the above said lake has to be cleared by doing Bio-mining within a period of 2 (Two) months. The report is dated 08.08.2020 and it is not known as to what is the present stage of the same.
5. Further, it is also mentioned that there are certain encroachments on the northern side of the lake and it is not known as to the steps taken by the authorities for removing all the encroachments to protect the water body against the encroachment.
6. Though, it was mentioned that there are certain proposals for de-silting and cleaning the bushes and strengthening the bunds of the lake so as to protect the water body, but it is not known as to what is the present stage of the same as well.
7. So under such circumstances, we feel it appropriate to direct the committee to conduct the inspection again and submit a present status of the lake. The Kattankolathur Panchayath Union is also directed to submit their independent response regarding the steps to be taken on the basis of the recommendations and the long term and short term remedies provided for protecting the water body as undertaken by them before the committee with specific timeline within which each activity will be completed by them.
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8. The District Collector, Chengalpattu is also directed to submit an independent response as to what are all the steps taken by them for removal of the encroachments found in the water body to protect the same against the encroachments.
9. The Pollution Control Board is also directed to submit their action taken report against the Panchayat for not complying with the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 as directed by the Principal Bench of National Green Tribunal, New Delhi in O.A. No. 606 of 2018 and also for discharging the sewage into the water body without proper treatment which itself is an offence under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974.
10.The committee as well as the local body, the District Collector, Chengalpattu and also the Pollution Control Board are directed to submit a further action taken report and further status report and also the compliance report regarding the implementation of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 respectively before this Tribunal on or before 02.02.2021 by e-filing in the form Searchable PDF/OCR Supportable PDF and not in the form of Image PDF along with necessary hardcopies to be produced as per Rules.
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11.The Registry is directed to communicate this order to the above said officials including the members of the committee so as to enable them to comply with the direction.
12.For consideration of further action taken and compliance report to be filed, post on 02.02.2021.
...................................J.M. (Justice K. Ramakrishnan) ...............................E.M. (Shri. Saibal Dasgupta) O.A. No.18/2020, 04th January, 2021. Mn.
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