No court relief for polluting brick-kilns

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 3

The Punjab and Haryana High Court (HC) today rejected the plea for protection to owners of the brick-kilns, which have been polluting the environment, as they have failed transition of their functioning to the officially mandated emissions technology.

An official press release said the Capt Amarinder Singh government had issued orders directing that all brick-kiln owners should convert their polluting units to induced draft technology by September 30. The government had also issued orders listing out penalties for failure to shift to the new zig zag technology.

Several brick-kiln owners had approached the court against the state government’s orders, but a Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajeev Sharma and Justice HS Sidhu refused to grant any relief to them.

During October 1 hearing, Advocate General Atul Nanda had placed details of the government’s orders, arguing that these were in compliance with the guidelines of the Central Pollution Control Board, various circulars of the Punjab Pollution Control Board, as well as orders passed by the National Green Tribunal dated January 22, 2019.

Additional Solicitor General Satya Pal Jain stated that in view of the fact that more than 30,000 objections had been received against the draft notification dated February 25, one month’s times would be required by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, for which he requested time from the court. Acceding to the request, the court adjourned the matter to November 15.