12-day garbage fire: NGT levies Rs 100 cr environmental compensation on Kochi corporation

The dumping yard caught fire on March 2. The garbage yard, with a huge deposit of plastic waste, kept smouldering for the next 12 days, leaving a blanket of toxic haze over the commercial capital of Kerala.

The Tribunal had initiated suo motu proceedings on serious environmental emergencies caused by the fire. The NGT had served notices on the state Chief Secretary, State PCB member secretary and Kochi Municipal Corporation secretary on March 6.
The tribunal, in its verdict, directed the Kerala Chief Secretary to fix accountability of concerned officers for such gross failures and initiate action under criminal law as well as by way of departmental proceedings, following due process, and place the same in public domain within two months.

Coming down heavily on the state government, the NGT said the state authorities have been an utter failure and have rampantly violated the statutory solid waste management rules and orders of the 1996 order of the Supreme Court and various orders of the tribunal from 2016 to 2022.

“It is essential to establish modern solid waste treatment plants and clear the dump yards of wastes by bio-mining to separate combustible and inert material. The contaminated ash separated during bio-mining should be removed to a sanitary landfill. Given the widespread burning of waste and dump yard fires, analysis of dioxins in animal origin food samples such as milk, egg, meat and in human milk is recommended,” the tribunal bench, chaired by Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, said.

“No accountability for such serious failure has been fixed and no senior person has been held accountable so far. Except for giving future plans, no fixing of accountability is proposed even now, which is a matter of concern. No prosecution has been launched against the guilty for criminal offences under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and also under relevant provisions of IPC nor action was taken for violation of orders of the Supreme Court and repeated orders of this Tribunal in proceedings transferred to the Tribunal by the Supreme Court,’’ the bench, also comprising judicial member Justice Sudhir Agarwal and expert member Dr A Senthil Vel, said

“Such attitude of State authorities is a threat to the rule of law. We hope the situation is remedied at the higher level in the state such as the DGP and the Chief Secretary to uphold the Constitution and the mandate of environmental law,’’ the tribunal said.