New Delhi: Taking a serious view of the air and water pollution caused by illegal brick kilns in the national capital, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday rapped Delhi and neighbouring states for not filing their reply on a plea alleging their adverse impact.
A bench, headed by justice Raghuvendra S. Rathore said that despite its February 7 direction for filing of the replies in three weeks, Delhi, National Capital Region (NCR) states and state pollution control boards have not filed their response.
The tribunal was hearing a petition filed by Delhi resident Shailesh Singh seeking action against those brick kilns, which are operating without complying to pollution guidelines and causing immense air and water pollution.
The plea had also claimed that these brick kilns were running without obtaining necessary clearances from statutory authorities concerned.
“The counsel for states of Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and state pollution control boards are given a last opportunity to comply with the order dated February 7 for filing of the report in respect to brick kilns within the area referred to in the original application,” the NGT bench said.
“In case the states and state pollution control boards fail to do file their response before the next date of hearing, they would be liable to be saddled with costs,” the tribunal added, while posting the matter for next hearing on May 2.
The petition had listed seven districts of Uttar Pradesh, including Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar, Baghpat, Meerut, Hapur, and Muzaffarnagar, 13 districts of Haryana, including Gurgaon, and two districts (Alwar and Bharatpur) of Rajasthan, besides Delhi.
Referring to a 2017 report of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), it claimed that out of as many as 2,125 brick kilns in seven districts of UP, 1,728 were operating illegally.
Similarly, out of of 172 brick kilns in Alwar, 109 were running without permission, while 13 of 110 lacked necessary approvals in Bharatpur, it said.
