The National Green Tribunal (NGT) took Suo Motu cognizance of the matter relating to disposal of untreated sewage by a private tanker in the Cooum river in Chennai showing the rampant practice of illegal sewage disposal in the river.
The Petition is registered suo-moto on the basis of the news item appearing in the daily newspaper dated 24.03.2024.
The news item discloses that for restoration of the river Cooum, Rs. 735 crores have been spent since 2015 by Chennai River Restoration Trust.
The Metrowater had spent Rs. 193.25 crores to plug 37 out of 40 sewage inlets as per 2023 data and Metrowater has also spent a substantial amount for building monitoring and control centres to keep tabs on licensed private sewage tankers plying in the city.
The news item contains a photograph of the tanker clearly depicting the discharge of sewage water from the tanker in the river.
As per the news item, the GPS system of Metrowater is not working efficiently and its monitoring centre can track only one sewage lorry at a time. It also discloses that the tanker operators do not want to pay charges to Metrowater to drop the sewage load in their decanting stations and, therefore, they release it in water bodies.
The news item raises substantial issue relating to compliance of the environmental norms especially implementation of provisions of the Scheduled enactment.
“Power of the Tribunal to take up the matter in suo-motu exercise of power has been recognized by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the matter of “Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai vs. Ankita Sinha & Ors.” reported in 2021 SCC Online SC 897.”
Hence, the Principal Bench of Justice Prakash Shrivastava , Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi and Dr. Afroz Ahmad impleaded the following as respondents in the matter:
(1). Central Pollution Control Board through its Member Secretary.
(2). Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board through its Member Secretary.
(3). Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Regional Office (SEZ), Chennai.
(4). Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board through its Managing Director.
(5). Collector/District Magistrate, Chennai.
Counsel for Respondent No. 4, on advance notice, has submitted that after receiving the information, an FIR has been lodged and the defaulting tanker has been traced out and a fine of Rs. 25,000/- has been imposed by Respondent No. 4 under Chapter 5 of the Septage Management Guidelines framed by the Government of Tamil Nadu.
Though all the respondents are represented through their Counsel on advance notice, but none of them could disclose the source from where sewage was received by the tanker, the place of its loading, person/authority on whose instructions such sewage was loaded, frequency of operation of such trucks and number of such trucks/tankers operating and indulging in such activity. The Counsel for the Respondents have sought time to file a detailed report in this regard. Let the same be filed within four weeks before the appropriate Bench of the Tribunal.
Since the matter relates to the Southern Zonal Bench , Chennai , therefore , the Bench transferred the matter to the Southern Zonal Bench for appropriate further action. Office is directed by the NGT to transfer the original record to the Southern Zonal Bench and the matter is listed on 21.05.2024.