The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has set a deadline of maximum one year for disposing of every case pertaining to the environmental problem. “One year deadline has been set so as to ensure quick justice to the petitioners in such cases of immense public importance,” said the NGT chairman Justice Swatanter Kumar, while delivering his keynote address during a state-level function organized by the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) to mark the World Environment Day on Friday.
Reiterating the firm commitment of the Tribunal to make India a clean, green and pollution free country, he said that the Tribunal is making all out efforts to make country free from environmental pollution by ensuring that its progress was not affected in anyway. Justice Kumar categorically said that till date, 82 percent of cases filed in the NGT has been disposed off for the facilitation of the general public. “We never want that a grandfather should file a case and his grandson should get the justice, so we have set this deadline for delivering justice to the people within a year,” he said.
Recalling Punjab’s immense contribution in making country self-reliant in food production besides valiantly safeguarding its borders, Justice Kumar said that it was a high time that Punjabis must take a lead for protecting the environment of state and country. “It is unfortunate that despite of having a glorious legacy, the Punjabis are lagging behind in the field of protecting environment of the country, which is a real blessing of the God to the state and country,” he said while exhorting Punjabis to take one corrective step for preserving the environment of the country and then see that how it does a wonder.
He pointed out that every single step in a right direction could do miracles whereas every wrong step leads to havoc. Citing the examples of nature’s fury in Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarkhand and Nepal, Justice Kumar said that these disasters have proved that human interference in the process of nature is proving very costly to them.
“Even in the national capital, Delhi, small children are facing a number of health problems due to ever increasing pollution, which is a cause of worry for all of them…The need of hour is that people develop a social conscious towards preserving the environment by starting small steps like segregation of the waste at their home, so that harsh effects of nature like ‘Global Warming’ could be avoided,” he said.