|
|
People are more important than industries, SC tells Centre
|
|
|
|
Top Stories |
|
|
|
|
SME Times News Bureau | 17 Jul, 2018
The Supreme Court on Monday, while taking into note of a report that
60,000 people have died due to pollution, told the Centre that "people
are more important than industries".
A bench of Justice Madan B.
Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta slammed the Ministry of Environment and
Forests after it sought time to study the impact of ban on import of pet
coke used in industries as fuel which is a cause of pollution and asked
whether the government had allowed the import without studying its
impact on the people's health.
The bench said: "You (Environment
Ministry) seem very keen to allow the import of pet coke. Were you
earlier allowing import of pet coke in the country without even
conducting the study?
"The other day newspapers reports said
that 60,000 people died due to pollution. What are you doing? People are
dying in the city due to huge amount of pollution. We don't know
whether the newspaper report is correct or a fake news. But your reports
have also earlier indicated that people have lost lives due to
pollution."
"Let us be very clear. The people of this country are more important than the industries," the apex court added.
Advocate
Aparajita Singh, who was assisting the court as amicus curiae in the
case, told the bench that the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has
supported the ban on import of pet coke, but the Environment Ministry
has been opposing it.
She said that the Environment Ministry's
report "is like an 'Alice in Wonderland' report" and while the Petroleum
Ministry is coming forward, the Environment Ministry is not bothered.
"Now they say they want to further study the impact," she added.
She
alleged that the Environment Ministry's stand on conducting the study
was the reason for "delaying" the ban on import of pet coke.
Additional
Solicitor General A.N.S. Nadkarni, appearing for the Environment
Ministry, asked "What's wrong in conducting the study and having a
discussion with them (EPCA)?", while urging to give at least two days to
prepare the report.
The court directed the Environment Ministry
to conduct a meeting with EPCA during the week and apprise it about the
expert committee report.
The top court on May 10 had set a
deadline of June 30 for the Central government to decide on the issue of
banning import of pet coke and said the government's failure on this
count would compel it to pass a direction.
The court was hearing a
PIL filed in 1985 by environmentalist M.C. Mehta relating to air
pollution in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Customs Exchange Rates |
Currency |
Import |
Export |
US Dollar
|
66.20
|
64.50 |
UK Pound
|
87.50
|
84.65 |
Euro
|
78.25
|
75.65 |
Japanese
Yen |
58.85 |
56.85 |
As on 13 Aug, 2022 |
|
|
Daily Poll |
|
|
PM Modi's recent US visit to redefine India-US bilateral relations |
|
|
|
|
|
Commented Stories |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|