November 28, 2009 3:34:57 am
The Calcutta High Court today directed the Monitoring Committee of the state government to file an action taken report on phasing out more than 15-year-old public vehicles in the Kolkata Metropolitan Area (KMA).
Banning the old vehicles,the Calcutta High Court directed the state government on July 18,2008 to form a Monitoring Committee to keep a watch on the implementation of its orders.
Following this,the state government had set up a nine-member Monitoring Committee headed by Chief Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakrabarti and comprising two experts from Jadavpur University and Kharagpur IIT.
The High Court had directed the committee to file a report every fortnight on the implementation of the courts order that banned old public vehicles from plying from April 1,2009. Environmentalist Subash Dutta had moved a plea that the Monitoring Committee,which was set up on July 30,2008,had since met twice but did not place any report before the High Court.
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A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice Prasenjit Mondal also directed the police and West Bengal Pollution Control Board to file action taken report on the implementation of the courts order,Dutta said.
In a related development,the same Bench also directed the Union ministry of petroleum to file an affidavit within two weeks on its notification which imposed ban on the use of bio-diesel.
According to Dutta,the petroleum ministry issued an administrative order on March 5,2009 imposing restriction on the use of bio-diesel by vehicles and subsequently asked the state government not to allow the use the bio-diesel on the ground that it is an adulterated product. Dutta sought for an order to withdraw the restriction on the use of bio-diesel when it is more eco-friendly.
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