Submit revised action plan, NGT tells Himachal Pradesh board

SHIMLA

: With seven river stretches- Sukhana, Markanda,

Sirsa

, Ashwani, stretches of Beas, Giri and Pabbar-in

Himachal Pradesh

found to be polluted and identified as “critically polluted” , the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in a recent order has directed the state pollution board among others to submit revised

action plan

to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) after complying with the deficiencies by January 31, 2019.


“The CPCB shall examine the action plans and only if they meet the scientific and technical yardstick, it shall approve the same and convey it to the respective states/UTs,” it added.

The principal bench of the tribunal headed by its chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel in a recent order stated that by way of last opportunity, it had extended the time for preparation of action plans till January 31, 2019, with the stipulation that for every delay thereafter, compensation for damage to the environment will be payable by each state/ UT at the rate of Rs 1 crore per month for each of the priority- I and priority- II stretches, Rs 50 lakh per month for stretches in priority- III and Rs 25 lakh per month each for priority- IV and priority- V stretches.

It added that the payment would be the responsibility of the chief secretaries of the states/administrators of the UTs and the amount be recovered from the erring officials. The CPCB may prominently place the names of the defaulting states and UTs and a notice to this effect on its website, it added.

The green tribunal also observed that it also found that for 16 states/UTs had prepared incomplete action plans. It stated that the states/ UTs could now give revised reports on or before January 31, 2019, to CPCB after complying with the deficiencies.