NEW DELHI: Acting on an order of the National Green Tribunal and several observations made by different courts from time to time, the environment ministry has come out with standard operating procedures for dealing with cases of green violations. The measures which are to be taken against erring projects include demolition or closure of non-complying units and stiff penalties under the ‘polluter pays’ principle.
The five-point SOPs, issued to different agencies including Central Pollution Control Board and state PCBs this week, also include the procedural details for identification of violation and non-compliance, and a formula to impose penalties. Under penalty provisions, any new project which has not yet commenced its operations will have to pay 1% of total project cost as penalty for violation while the erring projects where operations have already commenced would have to additionally pay 0.25% of total turnover during period of violation.
The provisions, issued by the ministry as an ‘Office Memorandum’, take into account ‘principles of proportionality’ and the money, collected as penalties, will be used as ‘costs for remedial measures’ in areas where the violators have damaged the environment.
Environmentalists, however, said this regulation should have come through a proper notification, issued under the Environment (Protection) Act 1986, and this should not have come through the mode of OM.
The CPCB and state PCBs have been empowered to take action against violators according to the SOPs. The SOPs said that projects which were not “permissible” for grant of environmental clearance would be demolished.
View More | Source: Times of India