The high court of Uttarakhand has directed the Uttarakhand Environment Protection and Pollution Control Board (UEPPCB) to issue show cause notice to factories not following pollution control norms in the state. The board has also been directed to submit its report on this in the court. The division bench of chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice Alok Kumar Verma issued these directions while hearing on a Public Interest Litigation filed against factories in Uttarakhand not fulfilling the standards of the Central Pollution Control Board.
During the hearing of the PIL on Thursday, the UEPPCB submitted an affidavit in the court in which it stated that there are 49 factories in the state that are not following the pollution control regulations. Further, samples from eight factories have been sent for examination while 72 factories have started following the rules. In Sitarganj, two treatment plants are not being operated as per the rules. If these two treatment plants are shut down, about 90 factories will be closed down as a result. On this, the court observed that the board appeared to be worried about closure of factories but not about the environment.
It will be recalled that in the past the court had sought a list from CPCB of the factories not meeting the central board’s standards in Uttarakhand. The CPCB had stated that about 30 to 35 factories in the state do not meet the said standards. It is pertinent to mention here that Udham Singh Nagar resident Himanshu Chandola had filed the PIL in the high court stating that about 27 factories were generating air and water pollution in Udham Singh Nagar district. This had resulted in a number of deaths of people from serious ailment. The agricultural land had been rendered unfit for farming due to the pollution generated by the factories. The effluent from the factories was reaching the farms and ultimately the rivers, damaging the farmlands and polluting the rivers, the petitioner had stated.