Noida – Governments talk about lack funds but pollution control boards have collected over Rs 1,000 crore as penalties and not one rupee has gone to environment restoration, Justice Sudhir Agarwal from the NGT stated at an event held in the city on Monday.
Justice Agarwal addressed a panel to create awareness about preventing riverine and marine litter from the ecosystem. She lamented the attitude towards environment-related expense or work, saying it is often considered faltuka kharcha (unnecessary expense).
Even today, any expense, plan, or work that is related to the environment is considered a faltuka kharcha. This will be a costly endeavor. It will be expensive to improve the air quality. It will be too expensive to improve water quality. It will cost too much to improve the land. But how can we connect to the marine pollution in NCR. He asked.
Justice Agarwal answered TOI later, “Seeover Rs 1,000 crore is pending.” This is the amount that the (different) pollution control bodies have collected. We, in the NGT have levied a penalty. This money has been collected to be used for environmental restoration. However, not a single rupee was spent.
An RTI reply to a Noida-based activist stated that the CPCB had claimed that the government received more than Rs 380 crore as a penalty for violating environmental norms between 2017-18 and October 2019. The reply stated that while Rs 31.8 million and Rs 227.9 were respectively received by the government in 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2018, respectively, Rs 122.2 lakh was received the following year.
Justice Agarwal of the NGT has heard important cases such as pollution in Ganga, illegal silica sand mining, and shifting hospitals away from residential areas.
He suggested that Delhi-NCR’s pollution levels be controlled by a law banning more than two vehicles per household. He also suggested that only people with their own parking spaces should be allowed to purchase cars.
NCR’s air pollution problem is caused by local industries, vehicles, and construction. The lockdown saw all these closed, making the air cleaner. This is why you need to manage it. You are allowing one person to own four vehicles if he doesn’t have enough parking space. Why? Why not create a law that states that if your vehicle is not allowed to park, you will not be allowed or registered. Second, why can’t we prevent one family from owning more than one car? He asked.
Justice Agarwal argued that the ground level implementation of environment laws was not taking place. If a person violates pollution norms and earns Rs 100, he or she will have to pay Rs. He wondered what the point of paying Rs. 100 to violate pollution norms and how important was it to him.
When he spoke about pollution in the rivers he said: Spending money on the environment can be considered faaltuka kharcha. The feeling at the bureaucratic level is also that infrastructure is not available until it can be seen.
Justice Agarwal addressed a panel to create awareness about preventing riverine and marine litter from the ecosystem. She lamented the attitude towards environment-related expense or work, saying it is often considered faltuka kharcha (unnecessary expense).
Even today, any expense, plan, or work that is related to the environment is considered a faltuka kharcha. This will be a costly endeavor. It will be expensive to improve the air quality. It will be too expensive to improve water quality. It will cost too much to improve the land. But how can we connect to the marine pollution in NCR. He asked.
Justice Agarwal answered TOI later, “Seeover Rs 1,000 crore is pending.” This is the amount that the (different) pollution control bodies have collected. We, in the NGT have levied a penalty. This money has been collected to be used for environmental restoration. However, not a single rupee was spent.
An RTI reply to a Noida-based activist stated that the CPCB had claimed that the government received more than Rs 380 crore as a penalty for violating environmental norms between 2017-18 and October 2019. The reply stated that while Rs 31.8 million and Rs 227.9 were respectively received by the government in 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2018, respectively, Rs 122.2 lakh was received the following year.
Justice Agarwal of the NGT has heard important cases such as pollution in Ganga, illegal silica sand mining, and shifting hospitals away from residential areas.
He suggested that Delhi-NCR’s pollution levels be controlled by a law banning more than two vehicles per household. He also suggested that only people with their own parking spaces should be allowed to purchase cars.
NCR’s air pollution problem is caused by local industries, vehicles, and construction. The lockdown saw all these closed, making the air cleaner. This is why you need to manage it. You are allowing one person to own four vehicles if he doesn’t have enough parking space. Why? Why not create a law that states that if your vehicle is not allowed to park, you will not be allowed or registered. Second, why can’t we prevent one family from owning more than one car? He asked.
Justice Agarwal argued that the ground level implementation of environment laws was not taking place. If a person violates pollution norms and earns Rs 100, he or she will have to pay Rs. He wondered what the point of paying Rs. 100 to violate pollution norms and how important was it to him.
When he spoke about pollution in the rivers he said: Spending money on the environment can be considered faaltuka kharcha. The feeling at the bureaucratic level is also that infrastructure is not available until it can be seen.
Tags