Bengaluru: National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Wednesday passed an interim order to close down all industries in the vicinity of Bellandur Lake.
The NGT on Tuesday pulled up Karnataka Law Department and other officials for failing to implement orders given by them last week to clean up Bellandur lake after last year’s fire incident.
The NGT on Wednesday directed Karnataka State government to place the Action Plan in two weeks to prevent and control pollution in Bellandur Lake.
“We will obey the NGT interim order. We will submit the action plan within two weeks,’’ N Manjunatha Prasad, Commissioner, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) said.
The NGT has said that no industry will be permitted to operate unless allowed by Joint Inspection Team (JIT) which may seal the industries with the help of police and Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB).
“No waste – municipal solid, domestic, central marine disposal (CMD) shall be dumped into the lake or in buffer zone around the lakes. If anybody found polluting/dumping, environmental compensation of Rs 5 lakhs per event to be imposed,’’ the NGT said in its interim order.
The NGT has directed Chief Executive Officer of Karnataka Lake Conservation and Development Authority (KLCDA), Commissioner of Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) and Urban Development Department personally responsible for implementation of the directives given in the interim order.
On Wednesday, BBMP Joint Commissioner Sarfaraz Khan and Urban Development Department Secretary Mahendra Jain submitted an affidavit tendering unconditional apology and undertaking to withdraw circular dated March 30, 2017 and Urban Development Department letter dated February 16, 2017 with immediate effect.
The NGT directed that if any such attempt is brought to its notice, the same shall be subjected to contempt proceedings before the Tribunal. It also deterred the officials from interfering with the NGT judgment in future or from using impertinent language for the Tribunal.
The Tribunal noted that the intention behind the BBMP circular and legal opinion approved in the UDD letter dated February 16, 2017 was clearly to frustrate the NGT judgment.
Tribunal observed that the language used for it in the letter and comments given on the judgment (May 4, 2016) are unacceptable. The opinions expressed in the BBMP circular and UDD letter are completely contrary to the Tribunal’s judgment.
“We wish government on its own should take some action to show they have some respect for law. The UDD should know the law correctly that NGT is not a quasi-judicial body, and has been described as civil court in NGT Act,’’ the interim order said.
In the legal opinion, the Law Department, while clarifying that plan sanctions given to projects before the May 4 judgment would stand since the NGT order was only prospective, had said that the NGT is a quasi-judicial body that had no authority to frame laws. Hence, the plan sanctions given before the NGT order were in tune with the laws made by legislative competence of the State, the opinion argued. This drew the ire of the bench.
