According to information available, 903 hotels are operating illegally in the State without consent from the Odisha State Pollution Control Board.
Out of these hotels, 542 exist in Puri and the Orissa High Court has granted interim order of status quo to all hotels in Puri.
The issue was raised by Orissa High Court advocate Biranchi Narayan Mahapatra before the National Green Tribunal, Eastern Zone Bench, Kolkata. The NGT bench comprising Justice SP Wangdi (Judicial Member) and Prof PC Mishra (expert member) earlier admitted the case and issued notice to the Odisha Chief Secretary and Member Secretary, State Pollution Control Board, Odisha for filing their reply within stipulated period and also called for detail status and action taken report from the Chief Secretary and State Pollution Control Board, sources said.
The tribunal, in the meantime, also directed the State Pollution Control Board to take necessary measures in respect of the hoteliers who without taking consent have established their hotels and are operating their business in the respective area within Odisha and to file action taken report.
The Odisha State Pollution Control Board, other than issuing directions to the Regional Officers, has not taken any further steps. What the Odisha PCB was required to do was to issue notices upon the applicants and proceed to recover the compensation/penalty imposed by the tribunal. It is more than one month since the order on March 29 last was passed. But till date, the PCB did not take any steps to recover the penalty. This matter will appear on July 5 before the NGT.