National Green Tribunal
Ajay Srivastava vs State Of Haryana on 15 April, 2024
Item No.11 Court No. 1
BEFORE THE NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL
PRINCIPAL BENCH, NEW DELHI
Original Application No. 360/2023
Ajay Srivastava Applicant
Versus
State of Haryana Respondent
Date of hearing: 15.04.2024
CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE PRAKASH SHRIVASTAVA, CHAIRPERSON
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SUDHIR AGARWAL, JUDICIAL MEMBER
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ARUN KUMAR TYAGI, JUDICIAL MEMBER
HON'BLE DR. AFROZ AHMAD, EXPERT MEMBER
Respondent: Mr. Rajat Sangwan, Adv. for FTPS
ORDER
1. In this Original Application, the issue of disposal of fly ash lying at the site of Aravali Range even after the closure of Faridabad Thermal Power Station at Bata Chowk, Faridabad is involved. There are two fly ash dyke i.e. old fly ash dyke and new fly ash dyke. The details relating to the two ash dykes were placed on record by the HPGCL vide supplementary reply dated 20.12.2023 as under:-
"1. That approximate balance quantity of pond ash available on 30.11.2023 at New Pond Ash Dyke of FTPS, HPGCL, Faridabad Mewati is 8.0 LMT only. The rate of disbursal of pond ash from the commencement of FY 2022 is attached herewith as Annexure-A.
2. That approximate balance quantity of pond ash available at Old Pond Ash Dyke of FTPS, HPGCL, and Faridabad is 18.0 LMT. Since 1987 no pond ash has neither been dumped nor reclaimed from here. The ash dumped here is well compacted and thick vegetation have grown over its surface and there is no proposal for tinkering with this natural vegetation."
2. The Tribunal in the proceedings dated 08.02.2024 had taken note of the affidavit dated 12.01.2024 filed at the instance of the HPGCL 1 disclosing the timeline of 31.12.2025 for complete disposal of pond ash from the new fly ash dyke. The Tribunal also took note of the amendment Notification dated 01.01.2024 whereby the earlier Notification dated 31.12.2021 was amended and wider opportunity for disposal of fly ash was given. Hence, Tribunal had directed the competent authority of HPGCL to re-examine the timeline for complete disposal of fly ash at new ash dyke. In response thereto, the affidavit of the Executive Engineer/FTPS Faridabad dated 07.03.2024 has been filed stating as follows:-
"3. That for speedy disposal of the said legacy ash, HPGCL has already entered into contracts with two agencies for lifting of complete pond ash from New Ash Dyke at FTPS, Faridabad. One of the agencies is the sub-contractor of concessionaire of NHAI for the embankment work of Delhi-Vadodara expressway. Based upon supply of contracted quantity of pond ash from FTPS dyke, NHAI has prepared their execution plans of this express way. Any additional allocation of pond ash from new ash dyke to some other agency under the amended notification dated 01.01.2024 issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF & CC) will reduce quantity of pond ash to be used by NHAI for embankment work, which may adversely affect the progress of above-mentioned expressway and will not be as per the contract already signed with the agency. That any variation with the said contract at this juncture shall not only adversely affect a project of national importance undertaken by the NHAI but shall also render HPGCL vulnerable to various litigations and claims arising out of such consequential contractual breaches."
3. Referring to the above paragraph, learned Counsel for HPGCL submits that since the contract has already been awarded to two agencies for clearing the entire fly ash from the new fly ash dyke, therefore, the wider option given in the amended notification of 2024 cannot be exercised by HPGCL. However, he has assured that the entire new fly ash dyke will be cleared within the timeline i.e. 31.12.2025.
4. So far as the old fly ash dyke is concerned, learned Counsel for HPGCL has placed reliance upon the Notification dated 31.12.2021 and has submitted that since the said fly ash dyke has been stabilized, 2 therefore, it is not required to be cleared. In this regard, he has placed reliance upon the proviso to Clause A (5) of the Notification which reads as under:-
"5. The unutilised accumulated ash Le. legacy ash, which is stored before the publication of this notification, shall be utilised progressively by the thermal power plants in such a manner that the utilization of legacy ash shall be completed fully within ten years from the date of publication of this notification and this will be over and above the utilisation targets prescribed for ash generation through current operations of that particular year:
Provided that the minimum quantity of legacy ash in percentages as mentioned below shall be utilised during the corresponding year and the minimum quantity of legacy ash is to be calculated based on the annual ash generation as per installed capacity of thermal power plant.
Year from date of 1st 2nd 3rd -10th
publication
Utilisation of legacy ash At least 20 At least 35 At least (in percentage of Annual per cent per cent 50 per ash) cent Provided further that the legacy ash utilisation shall not be required where ash pond or dyke has stabilised and the reclamation has taken place with greenbelt or plantation and the concerned State Pollution Control Board shall certify in this regard Stabilisation and reclamation of an ash pond or dyke including certification by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) or State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) of Pollution Control Committee (PCC) shall be carried out within a year from the date of publication of this notification. The ash remaining in all other ash ponds or dykes shall be utilised in progressive manner as per the above mentioned timelines.
Note: The obligations under sub-paragraph (4) and (5) above for achieving the ash utilisation targets shall be applicable from 1 April, 2022."
5. Nothing has been pointed out to show that the conditions mentioned in the above proviso are fulfilled/satisfied to claim the benefit of the said proviso in respect of the old fly ash dyke. Hence, the competent authority of HPGCL is directed to file fresh affidavit indicating if the old fly ash dyke satisfies all the conditions mentioned in the above 3 proviso and the details thereof. Let this affidavit be filed within a period of four weeks by e-mail at [email protected] preferably in the form of searchable PDF/ OCR Support PDF and not in the form of Image PDF.
6. List on 26.07.2024.
Prakash Shrivastava, CP Sudhir Agarwal, JM Arun Kumar Tyagi, JM Dr. Afroz Ahmad, EM April 15, 2024 Original Application No. 360/2023 SN 4