Hearing on a public interest litigation against factories in the state not meeting standards of the Central Pollution Control Board, the high court of Uttarakhand set April 3 as the next date for hearing the case. The case came up for hearing before the division bench of chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice NS Dhanik on Tuesday. During the hearing, it was stated on behalf of the government that the Pollution Control Board had so far identified 130 factories not following the standards and had also issued notices for closure of the said factories.
However, due to the state administration presently being busy with the Lok Sabha election, further action could not be taken in this case. On this ground, time was sought by the state. In the past, the court had asked the central pollution control board to provide a list of all factories in the state in which it was also stated that a number of factories in the state were not meeting the standards set by the pollution control board. Based on this report, the state government had been directed to take action.
It is pertinent to mention here that Udham Singh Nagar district resident Himanshu Chandola had filed a public interest litigation in the high court stating that there were about 27 such industrial units in Udham Singh Nagar that were causing air and water pollution which had also caused the death of some persons from serious ailment in the area. It had also been stated in the petition that due to the pollution being spread by the industrial units, agricultural land in the affected area had been rendered unfit for farming.