99 Pagenumber (1).Pdf

303 BEFORE THE HON’BLE NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL EASTERN ZONE BENCH, KOLKATA ORGINAL JURISDICTION ORIGINAL APPLICATION NO.172 (EZ) of 2016 IN THE MATTER OF: Sanjay Laloo …Applicant Versus State of Meghalaya & Ors. …Respondents STATUS REPORT ON AFFIDAVIT ON BEHALF OF RESPONDENT NO.1- STATE OF MEGHALAYA INDEX S.No. Particulars Page No. 1. Status Report on Affidavit on Behalf of 1-12 Respondent No.1- State of Meghalaya 2. ANNEXURE R/1 13-25 A copy of CPCB report published in September 2018 regarding restoration of polluted river stretches 3. ANNEXURE R/2 26-56 A copy of order dated 20.09.2018 passed by the Principal Bench of this Hon’ble Tribunal in O.A. No.673 of 2018 4. ANNEXURE R/3 57-58 A copy of notification issued by the Government of Meghalaya bearing No. ENV.5/2018/44 dated 24.01.2019 304 5. ANNEXURE R/4 59-73 A copy of River Rejuvenation Plan prepared by the RRC of Meghalaya and approved by the Principal Bench of this Hon’ble Tribunal in respect of river Myntdu 6. ANNEXURE R/5 74 A copy of chart downloaded from CPCB website showing Status of Action Plans approved by CPCB dated NIL 7. ANNEXURE R/6 75-97 A copy of relevant portion of the CPCB report dated 19.06.2020 8. ANNEXURE R/7 98-188 A copy of report submitted by the State Government in O.A. No.606 of 2018 for third quarter of the year 2020 9. ANNEXURE R/8 189-230 A copy of report submitted by the State Government in O.A. No.606 of 2018 for fourth quarter of the year 2020 10. ANNEXURE R/9 231-244 A copy of status report filed by the State Government in O.A. No.593 of 2021 on 16.02.2021 11. ANNEXURE R/10 245-366 A copy of final judgment and order passed by this Hon’ble Tribunal in O.A. No.673 of 2018 dated 22.02.2021 12. ANNEXURE R/11 367-368 A copy of information relating to Water Quality Index of Identified Polluted River Stretches in Meghalaya for April 2021 downloaded from the website of MSPCB 305 13. I.A NO. OF 2021 369-371 Application For Exemption From Filing Attested And Notarized Affidavit On Behalf Of Respondent No.1 14. ANNEXURE A/1 372 A copy of notification imposing curfew dated 15.08.2021 15. Vakalatnama for Respondent No.1 373 Filed by: Dated 16.08.2021 Durga Dutt Advocate for Respondent No.1 811, Vijaya Building, Barakhamba Road, Connaught Place, New Delhi- 110 001 Ph. +91 9811723914; email: [email protected] 1 306 BEFORE THE HON'BLE NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL EASTERN ZONE BENCH, KOLKATA ORGINAL JURISDICTION ORIGINAL APPLICATION NO.172 (EZ) of 2016 IN THE MATTER OF: Sajay Laloo …Applicant ...Applicant Versus State of Meghalaya & Ors. …Respondents ...Respondents STATUS REPORT ON BEHALF OF RESPONDENT NO.1- STATE OF MEGHALAYA I, Sh. Manjunatha C., s/o Channabasappa T., aged about 43 yrs, the Secretary to the Government of Meghalaya, Forest and Environment Department haing office at Secretariat, Shillong - 793001 do hereby solemnly affirm and state as under: 1. That at present I am working as the Secretary to the Government of Meghalaya, Forest and Environment Department and as such in my official capacity I am conversant with the facts and records of the case and competent and authorized to swear this affidavit on behalf of Respondent No.1- State of Meghalaya. 2 307 2. That the present status report is being filed in pursuance of the directions issued by this Hon'ble Tribunal vide its order dated 07.07.202116.07.2021 in the captioned case to place on record the updated status of the efforts made by the State to keep rivers of the State of Meghalaya, including Myntdu pollution free. 3. That it is most respectfully submitted that the captioned case was filed in the year 2016 and Respondent No.1 had filed its reply affidavit way back on 17.01.2018, however, the case could not be heard after 2019. 4. That it is to bring to kind notice of this Hon'ble Tribunal that several other cases related to the issues raised in the present original application regarding prevention and control of pollution in rivers and cleaning of rivers have been taken up in the meanwhile by the Hon'ble Principal Bench of this Hon'ble Tribunal. The case numbers of the same are as follows: a. O.A. No.593 of 2017 titled as Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti v. Union of India & Ors. b. Suo-Moto O.A. No.606 of 2018 titled as Compliance of Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 (State of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Meghalaya) c. Suo Moto O.A. No.673 of 2018 titled as In re: News item published in "The Hindu" authored by Shri Jacob Koshy 3 308 titled "More river stretches are now critically polluted: CPCB That Suo-Moto O.A. No.606 of 2018 is still being monitored by the Principal Bench of this Hon'ble Tribunal and the State Government is filing its quarterly status report on compliance of directions issudd by this Hon'ble Tribunal in that case, which shall be discussed latet in this affidavit. 6 That later on O.A. No.593 of 2017 and O.A. No.673 of 2018 were7 clubbed and heard together by the Principal Bench of this Hon'ble Tribunal and have been disposed of vide a detailed judgment and order passed by the Principal Bench of this Hon'ble Tribunal dated 22.02.2021 which covers the issues raised in the present original application as well and the same may be disposed of in light of directions issued by the Principal Bench of this Hon'ble Tribunal in final judgment and order dated22.02.2021 passed in 0.A. No.673 of 2018. 7. That before pointing out the directions issued by the Hon'ble Principal Bench in aforesaid judgment dated 22.02.2021, it is necessary to summarize the developments that have taken place since the last date of hearing of the present original application in respect of cleaning of rivers in Meghalaya, including Myntdu. 4 309 8. That in September 2018, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) analyzed the water quality data statistically and by monitoring locations and has declared 351 river stretches in the country as exceeding the water quality criteria and were identified as polluted. As per the level of pollution, and emergent need for restoration of water quality these river stretches, they were classified in 5 categories and river Myntdu was kept in category-V, i.e. mildly polluted. A copy of CPCB report published in September 2018 regarding restoration of polluted river stretches is annexed herewith and marked as ANNEXURE R/1. 9. That the aforesaid CPCB report was quoted and referred in a news article published in the Hindu newspaper and the Principal Bench took suo-moto cognizance of the findings of the CPCB and took over the implementation and monitoring of the efforts to make the river stretches pollution free. In its first order dated 20.09.2018 the Hon'ble Principal Bench of this Tribunal has directed the States and Pollution Control Board to immediately constitute River Rejuvenation Committees' as prescribed and prepare 'rver rejuvenation plans' which are then to be approved by the CPCB and placed before the Hon'ble Tribunal for its approval. The Principal Bench took pains to even detail the content of the River Rejuvenation plans to be prepared by the committees so constituted. 5 310 The Principal Bench of this Hon'ble Tribunal passed following directions in order dated: "50. In view of above, we consider it necessary to issue the following directions: i) All States and Union Territories are directed to prepare action plans within two months for bringing all the polluted river stretches to be fit at least for bathing purposes (i.e BOD <3 mg/L and FC < 500 MPN/100 ml) within six months from the date of finalisation of the action plans. ii) The action plans may be prepared by four-member Committee comprising, Director, Environment. Director, UrbanDevelopment.,Director, Industries. Member Secretary,State Pollution Control Board of concerned State. ThisCommittee will also be the MonitoringCommittee for executionof the actionplan. The Committee may be called *River Rejuvenation Committee'" (RRC). The RRC will function under the overall supervision and coordination of Principal Secretary, Environment of the concerned State/Union Territory. iii) The action plan will include components like identification of pollutingsourcesincludingfunctioning/ status ofSTPS/ETPS/CETPand solid wastemanagement and procesSIng facilities, quantification and characterisation of solid waste. trade and sewage generatedin thecatchmentareaof pollutedriver stretch. The action plan will addressissuesrelating to: ground water extraction, adopting good irrigation practices, protectionandmanagementof FloodPlain Zones (FPZ). rain water harvesting, ground water charging maintainingminimumenvironmentalflow of river and plantation on both sides of the river. Setting up of biodiversity parks on flood plains by removing encroachmentshall also beconsideredas an important 6 311 component for riverrejuvenation.Theactionplanshould focus on properinterception and diversion of sewage carrying drainsto theSewageTreatment Plant (STP)and emphasisshould be on utilization oftreatedsewagesoas to minimizeextraction of groundorsurfacewater. The action plan should have speedy, definite or specific timelines for execution ofsteps.Provisionmay bemade to pooltheresources,utilizingfundsfromStatebudgets. local bodies,State Pollution ControlBoard/ Commitee and out ofCentralSchemes. iv) The Action Plans may be subjected to a random scrutiny by a task team of the CPCB. v) The Chief Secretaries of the State and Administrators/ Advisors to Administrators of the Union Territories will be personally accountable for failure to formulate action plan, as directed.

Load more