Tanisha Rana
Published on: September 18, 2022 at 19:18 IST
In re: Compliance of Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 and other environmental issues, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday ordered the State of Rajasthan to pay Rs. 3,000 crores as environmental compensation for improper management of solid and liquid waste.
The compensation under Section 15 of the NGT Act was deemed essential by a bench made up of the Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, Justice Sudhir Agarwal, and Expert Member Prof. Senthil Vel to address the ongoing environmental harm brought on by insufficient waste management.
“Moreover, without fixing quantified liability necessary for restoration, mere passing of orders has not shown any tangible results in the last eight years… Continuing damage is required to be prevented in future and past damage is to be restored”, the order stated.
The Supreme Court instructed the tribunal to oversee the application of the solid and liquid waste management standards in the cases of Almitra H. Patel vs. Union of India and Paryavaran Suraksha vs. Union of India, and this is why the ruling was made.
“Award of above compensation has become necessary under Section 15 of the NGT Act to remedy the continuing damage to the environment and to comply with directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court requiring this Tribunal to monitor enforcement of norms for solid and liquid waste management.”
The NGT estimated that the compensation for the treatment gap of liquid waste would be around Rs. 2,500 crores and that the reimbursement for the treatment gap of solid waste would be roughly Rs. 555 crores.
It rounded up the sum to Rs. 3,000 crores and ordered the State to deposit the money in a separate ring-fenced account that would be used for restoration efforts and managed in accordance with the Chief Secretary’s instructions.
Establishing sewage treatment and utilisation systems, upgrading systems and operations to ensure full capacity utilisation, ensuring compliance with standards, including those for faecal coliform, and establishing proper faecal sewage and sludge management in rural areas are all examples of restoration measures for sewage management.
The action plan for solid waste management calls for the construction of necessary waste processing facilities as well as the rehabilitation of 161 underutilised sites.
The tribunal said that the stabilised organic waste from biomining and compost facilities must adhere to established standards and that the bioremediation or bio-mining process must be carried out in accordance with CPCB norms.
The tribunal warned that the State may face further compensation if infractions persisted and insisted that the restoration plans must be carried out in a timely way.
“Both the above restoration plans need to be executed at the earliest simultaneously in all districts/cities/ towns/ villages in a time bound manner without further delay. If violations continue, liability to pay additional compensation may have to be considered,” the tribunal said.
The Maharashtra State Government was also fined by the tribunal in the same case’s hearing last week for mismanaging solid and liquid waste in the State.